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mi^smtmm^. 



MY APINGI KINGDOM 

WITH LIFE IN THE 

GREAT SAHARA, 

AND SKETCHES OP 

THE CHASE OF THE OSTRICH, HYENA, &c. 

By PAUL DU CHAILLIJ, 

ii 

AUTHOR OF 

"DISCOVERIES IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA," "STORIES OF THE GORILLA COUNTRY* 
"ASHANGO LAND," "WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR," &c. 

NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. 




NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 



1875- 



tf 



\* 1 



$ 



By PAUL DU CHAILLU. 



THE COUNTRY OF THE DWARFS. Illustrated. i2mo, Cloth, 

$i 75- 
MY APINGI KINGDOM. Illustrated. i2mo, Cloth, $i 75. 
LOST IN THE JUNGLE. Illustrated. i2mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. Illustrated. i2mo, Cloth, 

#1 75- 
STORIES OF THE GORILLA COUNTRY. Illustrated. i2mo, 

Cloth, $1 75. 

EXPLORATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN EQUATORIAL 
AFRICA. Illustrated. New Edition. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 

A JOURNEY TO ASHANGO LAND, and Further Penetration into 
Equatorial Africa. New Edition. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 



Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 

Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of 
the price. 



.By Transftflf 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
To my Young Friends Page 11 

CHAPTER II. 

A Council. — Shall we build a hundred Canoes. — The Great Falls of 
Samba-Nagoshi. — Fougamou, the forger of Iron. — People can not 
see him work Iron; if they do, they die 12 

CHAPTER III. 

Preparations for Hunting. — People ordered to get ready. — The Idol is 
put in the Street. — Dance with Torchlights. — The Idol says we will 
kill Game. — The People believe it 19 

CHAPTER IV. 

Porcupine Hunting. — They come out of their Burrows. — Fierce attack 
of the Dogs. — Porcupine Traps. — The Legend of the Porcupine and 
of the Leopard 25 

CHAPTER V. 

The Spirit, our King. — Great number of Plantain-trees. — Curious 
Fence for Game. — We ma^ch silently. — We surround ourselves with 
Fires. — The strange Legend of Arondo-Ienou 31 

CHAPTER VI. 
Difficult hunting Path. — The Men scatter. — Remandji and myself re- 
main together. — Fear of Elephants. — Capture of Game. — Snakes 
are killed 36 

CHAPTER VII. 

Departure to Visit my Dominions. — Preceded by one hundred Horn- 
men. — Followed by my Housekeeper. — War must not take place. — 
I get in a furious Rage. — Happy Denouement 44 



v i CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A hunt in Canoes. — An Antelope pursued. — I am nearly capsized. — 
Killing of the Antelope. — Return to the Village Page 59 

CHAPTER IX. 

Beautiful sight of Palm-trees. — How Palm-oil is manufactured. — Its 
Value. — India-rubber Vines. — A Leopard. — He is tracked. — Ter- 
rible Suspense. — The Leopard is killed 62 

CHAPTER X. 

Manufacture of Pottery. — Numerous Cooks. — Plantain Plantations.. 72 

CHAPTER XL 

The Kendo. — Its small Size. — I kill one. — Astonishment of the Na- 
tives 77 

CHAPTER XII. 

A herd of Monkeys. — How they travel in the Forest. — White-nosed 
Monkeys. — Their great Leaps. — How they keep Food when not 
hungry 80 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Elephant Hunting. — Take Refuge on a Tree. — Fire twice at the Ele- 
phant. — How he kicked! — An immense Python. — He kills one of 
our Dogs. — Okabi kills the Snake 86 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Serious Thoughts. — Shall I remain to be their King? — Will the Apin- 
gi Fight? — I must raise a Revenue. — Products of the Country 92 

CHAPTER XV. 
I discover a Galago's Lair. — Capture of the Galago. — Two baby 
Galagos 97 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Jack, the Monkey. — Hunting Monkeys with Dogs.^Great Fight be- 
tween two Dogs and a Nkago. — Capture of a young Nkago. — I 
give him the name of Jack 104 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The wonderful White Ants. — Their depredations. — Their curious 
Buildings. — I destroy them. — The Soldiers and the Workers. — 
How they take care of the Wounded and Young 115 



CONTENTS. Y jj 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

More about White Ants. — Two Species. — Terrible Fight between 
them. — The Workers and the Soldiers. — The Queen. — She is sur- 
rounded by Soldiers. — Other Species of Ants Page 128 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Leave the Apingi Country. — Go into the Interior. — I am Lost. — I 
raise the American Flag on a big Tree. — Leave it flying. — Starva- 
tion and Suffering. — Return to Remandji 143 

CHAPTER XX. 

I must leave my Kingdom. — Assembling of the People. — They come 
to say Good-by. — I make a Speech. — Remandji's Reply. — A heavy 
Present. — Presents to Remandji. — They are sorry I must go away . 150 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Good-by to Remandji. — I cross the River. — The Ashiras fear the 
Bakalais. — A Bakalai Village. — Crossing the Louvendji. — I meet 
Quengueza. — Arrival at Washington 159 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The Island of Madeira. — Sailing for Senegal. — A huge Shoal of Por- 
poises. — They Swim so fast. — Harpooning Porpoises. — Rejoicing 
on board. — How Porpoise Meat tastes 169 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Approaching the Senegal. — Sailors' Yarns. — Dangerous Navigation. 
— Shipwrecks of Vessels. — Terrible Suffering of the Crew of the 
Margaret. — Our Fears. — Taking Soundings 177 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

At the Mouth of the great Senegal River. — Appearance of the Coun- 
try. — A Village. — The Houses. — A sandy Country. — How the 
People carry Milk 185 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Senegal River.— The Jaloffs.— The Fehlahs.— The Fulahs.— 
The Mandingoes. — Habits of these Tribes. — The Moors. — Desert 
Winds. — Receptions in Jars. — "How nice it is !" 190 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Waiting for a Start. — Three young Lions. — I play with them. — How 
they were captured. — Terrible Combat with the Lion and the Lion- 
ess. — They are both killed 198 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Departure. — A Caravan. — Appearance of the People. — Riding a 
Camel. — I am Camel-sick. — Wells in the Sand Page 202 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Part with the Caravan. — A new Camp. — Discover Ostrich Tracks. — 
An Ostrich's Nest. — An Omelette. — Chasing Ostriches on Horse- 
back. — I am unsuccessful. — Large number of Sea-shells in the 
Desert 212 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

A Sand-storm Predicted. — The Wind from the Northeast. — The 
Storm. — After Ostriches. — Two are Killed. — Return to Camp. — 
Roast Ostrich for Supper. — Return to the Settlement 218 

CHAPTER XXX. 

A Pleasant Voyage. — In Sight of the Cameroons.- — The Island of 
Fernando Po. — Sharks. — The Pilot-fish. — What they do. — Hook- 
ing of a Big Shark. — Its Struggles. — Its Death 224 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Boobees. — Camp by the Sea. — We Spy a Canoe. — Fugitives 
from Slavery.— The Story of their Captivity.— Their Flight 233 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Departure from Fernando Po. — The Gull.— Her Crew. — A Tornado. 
— Starvation. — Cape of St. John.— Corisco. — Good-by 244 




:^0 ¥£y»*m^i',&< y r ^^y^^^^B^^^^^y : 7^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

African Forest Frontispiece. 

We are in Council 13 

Dancing before the Idol ~ 23 

Porcupine Hunt 27 

Apingi Game Fence 39 

The Blowing op Kambi Horns 45 

Making Palm-oil 64 

Lair op the Leopard ~ 71 

African Pottery ~ 73 

The Sciurus Minutus, or Kendo „ 78 

Monkeys journeying in the Forest 83 

The Galago 102 

Jack playing Tricks 112 

Mushroom-hived Termes and Tree Termites 120 

In the Cells — Queen, Soldiers, and Workers 123 

Battle of the White Ants 131 

Building of Forest Ants , 139 

Building of the Termes Bellicosus 142 

Paul mending Shoes « 148 

The Spirit taking Leave 153 

An Apingi Village 157 

My Settlement at Washington 165 

Harpooning Porpoises 175 

Heaving the Lead 184 

.Village on the Lower Senegal 186 

Strange Reception 196 

Playing with young Lions 200 

A Caravan of Moors 206 

An Ostrich Hunt 216 

Sand-storm in the Desert 219 

After Ostriches 222 

Capture of a Shark 230 

Departure from Fernando Po 245 

A2 



Mil &PQK!©[1 KQEI®!B®IEL 



CHAPTER I. 

TO MY YOUNG FRIENDS. 



Dear Young Folks, — Here I am again with another 
book. I like to write for you, because you seem to en- 
joy my books, and so eagerly read all that I have to say 
to you. 

In Lost in the Jungle I left you in Apingi Land, ,a 
country situated near the equator, and south of it. There 
the people were strange and superstitious. They were 
surrounded by immense forests, high mountains, and a 
large river flowed through their country. You will re- 
member that at last they made me their king, and, as 
you know, it was in my kingdom that I left you, prom- 
ising to come back to you in another year. 

I keep my promise, and I am now going to tell you 
more about that Apingi Land, and what I did there, and 
afterwards I will take you to the great Desert, and we 
will have a cruise together along the western coast of 
Africa. 



fflwlfewliiii 



CHAPTER II. 



A COUNCIL. SHALL WE BUILD A HUNDRED CANOES. THE 



GER OF IEON. PEOPLE CAN NOT SEE HIM WORK IRON I IP 



THEY DO, THEY DIE. 



After tho scenes I have described to you in the pre- 
ceding volumes, and by which you saw with what degree 
of superstition the people looked upon me, I need not 
tell you that I was the most powerful man in the coun- 
try. The superstitious natives thought me to be a mighty 
spirit. Their king I was, and they respected me, and it 
was my aim to deserve their respect and love'. I remem- 
bered the good precepts my mother had tried to teach 
me in my boyhood. 

I cultivated with them truthfulness and kindness of 
heart. I took care of their sick, I loved their children, 
I prevented their women from being beaten ; I made 
them feel they could rely upon my word, so that when I 
promised a thing would be done they knew it would be 
done. I was firm at the same time. I had to be politic, 
and there were customs and superstitions which I dis- 
liked, but which I knew time and education alone could 
destroy. 

Remand ji, his people, and the whole of the Apingi 
nation seemed to love me more and more as time passed 
on. I had some glorious talks with them, and every day 
I learned more of their people, superstitions, and cus- 



THE LAND OF THE MOGUIZL 



13 



toms. I loved to talk with those old men, and they 
loved to talk with me, and to ask me questions about 
the land of the Moguizi. Every day we had a talk to- 
gether. Their men would bring them their palm wine, 
and they would gradually sip it, just as the Germans do 
their beer, and jabber away at the same time. 

One sultry afternoon, when the rays of the sun were 
pouring down upon the forest, and making the heat in- 
tense in the village, Remandji, a few old men, and my- 
self went towards the river, and, after reaching its banks, 
we seated ourselves under a very wide-spreading tree, 
with the big stream rolling at our feet. The water was 
yellow and turbid, for the rains had been heavy for a 
few days past. 

After we had seated ourselves comfortably on some 




WE AKE IN COUNCIL. 



14 MY APINGI KINGDOM. 

logs of wood that were lying on the ground — although I 
did not seat myself before I had examined my log well, 
for centipedes and scorpions are often found in the 
cracks of these dead pieces of wood — I began to ques- 
tion them. 

" Remandji," said I, " suppose you build one hundred 
large canoes, while I go to the sea-shore and bring back 
to you and the Apingi large quantities of guns and 
swords. Then, after my return, suppose we load our 
canoes with palm oil, India-rubber, ebony wood, ivory, 
gum copal, and then go down the river to the sea and 
trade these products, and bring back all kinds of things 
that the people like, and would exchange for them. 

" What do you think of this V I said to him, looking him 
steadily but gently in the face, for I wanted to know his 
own thoughts, not by what he was going to say, but by 
the expression he would show. 

Remandj i and the old men round him began to look 
thoughtful, and seemed for a while to be lost in reflection. 

Then Remand ji said : " Spirit, the question you ask is 
a big thing. There are a great many tribes of wild and 
fighting men living on the banks of that big river that 
flows at our feet, and no one has ever tried to do what 
you propose. If you were to fly away, what would be- 
come of us ? The whole country would be against us ; 
tribe after tribe would fight us, for they would all say, 
' How do the Apingi dare to come down the river and 
pass us V I will tell you, Spirit, the names of some of 
the strange people who live on the banks of the river be- 
low us." 

I must confess that some of these names were hard to 
pronounce, and if I had not written them down in my 



TRIBES OF TWO GREAT RIVERS. * 15 

journal I should certainly have forgotten them. I give 
some of them to you, for I want you to know the names 
of some of the tribes inhabiting the banks of the big 
river by which we stood — the Kambas, Aviia, Osoun- 
ga, Njavi ; our old friends the Bakalai, of whom you 
have been made thoroughly well acquainted with in 
Stories of the Gorilla Country, Wild Life under 
the Equator, and Lost in the Jungle ; Anenga, Nga- 
loi, Adjomba, and the Ogobai people. " These ISTgalois, 
Anenga, Adjomba, and Ogobai people would fight us all 
the time," said Remandji, " for they have sworn, before 
our fathers were born, that no people from the up river 
should pass their tribe to go down ; and who knows, per- 
haps, but that they would call all the people belonging to 
another river much bigger than ours, which is called Rem- 
bo Okanda, to come and join them and fight against us % 
Oh, Spirit, they are mighty fighting men on the Rembo 
Okanda River." 

Then there was a pause. Remandji looked thought- 
fully on the ground, and then, gradually raising his eyes, 
looked at me, and said again : 

" I know that you want to make the Apingi people a 
great people ; but what you said can not be done, for there 
is, lower down in the river, something more formidable, 
more terrible than all the wild people I have spoken of." 

He looked at me to see if I knew what it was, when 
suddenly I shouted, "Do you mean the Samba-Nagoshi 
Falls V for I had heard of them from the people of the 
sea-shore. Their fame was greater even than that of the 
Nkoumou-^STaboulai Mountains, the summit of which I 
had tried to reach, of which enterprise you have had an 
account already. 



16 MY APINGI KINGDOM. 

" Yes," said Remandji ; " no man can pass through the 
Samba-Nagoshi. No Apingi would dare to come near 
it, for there is death there, and mighty spirits reside 
there, who guard the river." 

" Tell me," said I to Remandji, " tell me about the 
Samba-Nagoshi Falls. I want to hear what you have to 
say about them." 

Remandji then fixed himself comfortably for a long 
speech, and began as follows : 

" In the days of old, long, long ago, there was a great 
spirit living in the forest, whose name was Fougamou. 
Fougamou was a great forger of iron, and a mighty spir- 
it. One day, as Fougamou was wandering through the 
great forest, he came upon the banks of our river, and 
made up his mind to dwell by it. At last the people be- 
gan to find out that Fougamou would work iron for them. 
So, when any one wanted a spear or a hatchet, battle- 
axe, knife, or 'any other implement, he would go near the 
banks of the river, and cry, c Oh ! mighty Fougamou, I 
want this iron to be forged ;' and then he named the in- 
strument he wanted, as he deposited the rough iron he 
had dug up on the ground. Then he departed, for no 
one could ever see Fougamou work the iron, for Fouga- 
mou had forbidden people ever to look at him, and the 
people were afraid to do it, as they believed that if ever 
they saw him -they would die. 

" The following morning, when they went back to the 
place where they had deposited the iron, they would find 
the weapon they had asked for finished. So I need not 
tell you, Spirit, how much Fougamou was loved by the 
people. 

" When Fougamou came to live on the banks of the 



FO UOAMO U DISCO VERS PEOPLE L OKING A T HIM. \ 7 

river, he said to himself that no one should ever go down 
or up the river in canoes, and he made a mighty barrier 
across the river, made of stone ; and the water tumbles 
down and runs so fast," said Remandji, with a shudder, 
" that if a canoe was to be carried over the falls it would 
be broken in piece's, and the people killed. I wish you 
could hear the roaring water of Fougamou. 

" Listen," added Remand] i, observing that I was about 
to speak ; " I have not finished the story of this great 
spirit. 

" One day, however, a man and his son went in the 
forest with their iron and charcoal to ask Fougamou to 
work it for them, but they had made up their mind, be- 
fore starting, that they would see Fougamou work the 
iron, and find out how it was done, and they said, ' Sure- 
ly we shall not die if we see him.' ' 

" So, after going for a long while through the forest, 
they came to the spot where the people were in the habit 
of depositing the iron. After leaving it and the char- 
coal on the ground, they hid themselves, the father in 
the hollow of a tree, and the son among the boughs of 
another tree. Fougamou came with his son, for Fouga- 
mou had a child, and began to work, when suddenly the 
son said, l Father, I smell the smell of people.' The 
father replied, ' Of course you smell people ; for does not 
the iron and charcoal come from the hands of people V 
So they worked on. But the son again interrupted his 
father, saying again, ' Father, I do smell the smell of 
people.' Then Fougamou began to look round, thinking 
that what his son told him might be true. Then he saw 
the two men. He roared with rage till his roar shook 
the whole forest ; and then, to punish the father and his 



1 8 MY APNIGI EINOD OM. 

son, he turned tLe tree in which the father was hidden 
into an ant-hill, and the hiding-place of the son into a 
nest of black ants. But," added Remandji, with a great 
sigh, "since then Fougamou has never worked iron. 
These two people were aniemba ("wizards"), for they 
broke the law Fougamou had made, and did not wish 
Fougamou to work iron any more for the people. But, 
like in the days of old, he still keeps the river. 

" But, besides the great Fougamou, there are two other 
spirits who live by the river, and they also have made 
the river such that no canoe can pass. These two spir- 
its are Samba and Nagoshi. Nagoshi is the wife of 
Samba." 

After hearing the interesting legend of Samba -Na- 
goshi, I was surprised that time had gone on so rapidly. 
The sun had disappeared behind the trees, and darkness 
was soon to succeed daylight. The birds were looking 
for the trees they intended to rest upon for the night. 
Flocks of parrots were making for different parts of the 
forest. The insects were seeking for the leaves where 
they were going to take shelter, and the butterflies had 
become quiet. 

How quickly time had fled ! What strange " talks" I 
had heard ! 

So we got up and made for the village. When we 
entered it the people seemed glad to see us again, and I 
heard them say, " Look how the Spirit seems to love Be- 
mandji !" 



CHAPTER III. 

PREPARATIONS FOR HUNTING. PEOPLE ORDERED TO GET 

READY. THE IDOL IS PUT IN THE STREET. DANCE WITH 

TORCHLIGHTS. THE IDOL SAYS WE WILL KILL GAME. 

THE PEOPLE BELIEVE IT. 

If you had been in the Apingi country on that same 
evening of the day when I heard the legend of the Fou- 
gamou and Samba-Nagoshi, which I have just related to 
you, you would have seen me under the little veranda 
of Remandji's hut, seated quietly by his side, and talk- 
ing to him. Remandji is a great smoker, and did really 
enjoy his pipe. It was a splendid pipe, made of clay, 
and he smoked through a long reed, the pipe resting on 
the ground. It really did me good also to see Rem and ji 
enjoy his pipe. I was almost sorry I could not keep him 
company, but I do not use tobacco in any form. 

We were talking about a hunt to be made. He said, 
"Moguizi, at some distance from our village we have 
built a fence in the forest with little sticks about so 
high ;" then he raised his hand to show me how high it 
was, and I judged it was about five or six feet, and he 
added that it was of great length, but could not tell how 
long. He said it was many and many a time longer 
than the village. We built this fence the last rainy sea- 
son, and from place to place, not far from each other, 
there are kind of loop-holes^ in which the game we chase 
before us goes in, and then can not get out. 



20 MY APINOI KINGB OM. 

" The day after to-morrow," said he, " if you like we 
will form a large party to drive the game into there. 
To-morrow we will collect food, and start early the next 
morning. We will take a hunting path which passes 
through the fence, and we will continue to travel to the 
other side till we are a good long way from it, then we 
will sleep in the woods, and the next morning will separ- 
ate from each other, but you and I will remain together." 

The old men around us agreed to this, and people 
were sent to many of the Apingi villages to tell the in- 
habitants that the second day afterward they must come 
to our village, for the Spirit wanted to go and hunt, 
and Remandj i was going with him. 

That same evening I furbished up a double-barreled 
smooth-bore gun, which I intended to load with buck- 
shot for gazelles. Then I prepared another gun, which 
was to be loaded with bullets for larger game, such as 
elephants, gorillas, leopards, etc. In the afternoon hun- 
dreds of people came into the village ; they were the 
men that were to start with Remandji and me for the 
hunt. 

I remember well that night before our departure, 
though several years have passed since then. The night 
was clear, the stars were bright, and only a few fleecy 
white clouds, which moved overhead slowly, were to 
be seen. The huge idol, at eight o'clock by my watch, 
was taken from its house and put in front of it. Soon 
the moon rose, and its bright light shone upon the street, 
and every Apingi hut could be seen distinctly. Back of 
the huts the trees cast their huge shadows, and I could 
hear the whisper of the wind as it blew through the for- 
est and over the village. The huge bats, commonly call- 



A HOBBID-LOOKINQ IDOL. 21 

ed vampires, flew above our heads as they passed into 
the forest to hang themselves to the branches of the 
trees. What a queer cry they had ! How strangely 
sounded the noise they made ! The croaking of frogs in 
the neighboring swamps could be distinctly heard. That 
part of the village where I stood was almost as quiet as 
the night itself, for all the villagers and the strangers 
had gone to the other end, and were no doubt talking 
over their stories, or discussing the plans of the hunt for 
the morrow. 

I was facing the idol, and thought what an ugly thing 
it was. It was a female, about three feet in height, 
carved of wood, having a tremendous chest, which was 
full of charmed powder. Its head-dress was made of 
the little bristles from the tail of a porcupine. It wore 
a necklace made of the teeth of monkeys ; the eyes were 
made of pieces of polished iron ; round its waist it had a 
belt of feathers of wild guinea-fowl, while at its feet lay 
skulls of monkeys and of other wild animals. 

As I was looking at this strange, ugly thing, I wonder- 
ed how it was that men could believe that such things, 
made with their own hands, could talk, walk, eat, and 
wink their eyes, and work their vengeance on people; 
but then I remembered that there were once nations far 
higher in civilization than these poor creatures, people 
who have left to us noble and magnificent works of art 
and skill, who were equally imbued with the same folly 
and superstition. As I stood there thinking of these 
strange things, friend Hemandji came to me and said 
that the crowd were coming to dance round the idol, and 
ask it to make us have plenty of game. 

After a while great numbers of people came with 



22 MY APINGI K1NGB OM. 

drums, and with a great quantity of torches made of the 
pitch produced from a certain tree. These were lighted 
and stuck in the ground surrounding the idol, excepting 
that there was a spot left open in front for the people to 
come close, so that they might speak to it. How strange 
the lurid glare of these torches made the idol appear ! 
By the peculiar light the wooden god looked ten times as 
ugly as it appeared before. 

About twenty yards in front of it the drummers put 
themselves in a row. There were about fifty of them, 
and they began to beat their drums, and the people be- 
gan to sing to the idol, and promised to bring to it a 
great quantity of game, if they were fortunate enough to 
kill much. 

Towards one o'clock in the morning the number of 
drummers and dancers became less and less, till at last 
no one was left on the dancing-ground but the idol. The 
next morning many of the villagers swore that during 
the night the idol walked in the street, and spoke aloud, 
and told the people that a large quantity of game was to 
be caught in the chase. So every body was joyous, and 
4oon every thing was ready for our departure. 




- v. ? 




DAXOING BEFORE THK IDOL. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PORCUPINE HUNTING. THEY COME OUT OF THEIR BURROWS. 

FIERCE ATTACK OF THE DOGS. PORCUPINE TRAPS. — - 

THE LEGEND OF THE PORCUPINE AND OF THE LEOPARD. 

Early on the morning of the scene just described to 
you in the preceding chapter, Okabi and I resolved to 
go to a place not far from the village, which he had dis- 
covered while rambling in the forest, where porcupines 
were abundant. So we left, taking with us four dogs, 
and after about an hour's walk we came to a place in 
the forest, near the bottom of a hill, where the ground 
was very stony. It was not long before I discovered 
many burrows where the creatures were hidden. The 
dogs at once began to bark furiously at the entrance of 
the burrows, and to try to get in by scratching away the 
earth. The porcupine being a nocturnal animal, they 
had all retired into their holes. But we should have had 
to wait long if we had waited for the dogs to dig them 
out. We had provided ourselves with an implement for 
digging, and went to work in good earnest at one of the 
burrows. We soon started one of the animals, and off 
he went on a run, with the. dogs after him. They speedi- 
ly overtook him, and barked and jumped briskly round 
him, but were afraid to touch the creature. I did not 
blame them, for it would have done no good. This 
was a big one, and his long, sharp-pointed quills spread 
rapidly, and protected the animal as if they were so 

B 



26 MY APINGI KWGD OM. 

many bayonets. His little tufted tail, which was cover- 
ed with most extraordinary little balls of quills of a yel- 
lowish color, which at first sight look like a horny sub- 
stance or thick parchment, rattled as the porcupine 
moved about ; and, if I had been in the land of rattle- 
snakes, and had not seen the porcupine, I might have 
then thought that one was near at hand. Some of the 
quills in the middle of the creature's back are five and 
six inches long, and sometimes even longer. They are 
very sharply pointed. There was no fear of the dogs 
getting hold of him. Indeed, no animal would relish 
such a mouthful. Neither the leopards nor hyenas 
would venture upon it. The dogs knew that it was of 
no use for them to try, and hence they were mad. We 
could not help laughing to see them. Their hair stood 
right up, so furious were they, so that their backs al- 
most appeared like that of the porcupine, only with short 
quills. They would come near and bark furiously, show 
their teeth, and then back out. Finally the porcupine 
turned round, and, having a stone to protect him, showed 
fight ; this made the dogs bark more furiously than ever. 
Nothing but a smart blow on the head of the porcupine 
would kill him, for we eould not take hold of the animal 
with our hands. His quills would have gone through 
them. Seizing a piece of wood, I just gave the fellow a 
stunning blow on his head, which laid him out on the 
ground, and another blow on the head again finished 
him. 

I saw that the longest quills were flexible, and could 
not do much harm to an enemy, the shorter ones being 
stiff. The porcupine feeds on roots, leaves, nuts, and 
different vegetable productions. The quills of the por- 



HOW PORCUPINES ARE TRAPPED. 



2? 




PORCUPINE HUHT. 



cupine are often used as pen-holders, and very pretty 
ones they make. 

They come out of their burrows about sunset, and 
wander during the night. When the natives have dis- 
covered a porcupine burrow, which is sometimes very 
deep, they set a trap that is so constructed that it catches 
the animal when it comes out. This trap is made of the 
bough of a tree, one end of which is firmly fixed on the 
ground ; the other extremity is bent forward, and to it is 
attached a noose with a slip-knot just over the opening of 
the burrow. The porcupine, in coming out, puts his head 
into this noose, and at the same time loosens a peg that 
holds the spring lightly by pushing forward, and up he 
goes into the air, hung by the neck. The noose grows 
tighter and tighter the more he moves and shakes, and 



2 g MY APING I KINGD OM. 

soon strangles him to death. I have often seen porcu- 
pines trapped in this way. 

Immediately after the first blow the quills began to 
drop down flat on its back ; at the second blow the ani- 
mal was killed. 

After killing two more porcupines we returned to the 
village. A little after my arrival I found that there was 
to be a fight among the villagers. They all wanted the 
tails of the porcupines, and every body thought he had a 
right to them. Every body was shouting at the top of 
his voice, as if they thought the one who could make the 
most noise had the best right to the spoils. This great 
fuss was made on account of the porcupines' tails being 
used for fetiches or charms. I stopped the noise by say- 
ing that if there were a fight for these tails, I should join 
in it, and knock down right and left. This talk of mine 
put a stop to their quarrel ; and, in order to satisfy them 
and make them good-natured, I appropriated the three 
tails myself, so there might be no jealousy. 

The porcupine is really good to eat. Having some, 
nice, fresh palm oil, made the day before from nuts we 
had collected, I cooked my share in the oil, and, having 
seasoned it with salt and plenty of Cayenne pepper, I 
had a splendid dinner. 

As we had been hunting porcupines all the morning, 
we were bound to have a porcupine story on my return. 
Okabi was a real good story-teller, and so he began : 

" A long time ago, when my father was a boy, one day 
he got very greatly scared. lie was coming back to the 
village from the forest, where he had gone in search of 
wild honey, when he suddenly saw, near the hunting 
path, an immense leopard lying flat on the ground. The 



my 



LEOPARD WATCHING A PORCUPUSTM 29 

leopard's back was turned towards him, and so the crea- 
ture did not see him. His long tail wagged to and fro, 
and he lay very quiet. Father, seeing a big hollow tree 
close to him, hid himself in it. But he did not feel safe. 
He was afraid to stir or make any sound, for fear of 
alarming the leopard and betraying himself. Looking 
closely, he saw that the leopard was watching a porcu- 
pine about a yard in front of his nose. The poor porcu- 
pine was all drawn up in a bunch. His quills were all 
standing out like so many sharp-pointed spears, and it 
was evident that both were at a stand-still. The leop- 
ard, not a bit frightened, seemed to be lying in wait for 
the proper time to kill his prey, while the porcupine, 
knowing full well that, if it did not keep on the defen- 
sive, or tried to escape, the leopard would turn him over 
with one stroke of his huge paw, and expose the under 
part of his body, which is soft and undefended with quills. 
He would then fall an easy prey to the leopard's sharp 
claws. So the porcupine stood still, rolled up so tight 
that he could hardly turn his head, and thoroughly pro- 
tected by his bristling quills. 

" My father saw the leopard now and then try, with its 
big long paw, to draw the porcupine towards him, but he 
would instantly take it off, the quills pricking him in a 
way he did not like at all. There the leopard lay and 
lay, till at last he got up, and father became very much 
afraid, for he knew not if the leopard had smelt him. 
Nothing," said Okabi, " saved him but the monda (fetich) 
which he wore, and which came from my grandfather, 
for grandfather was a great hunter and a daring warrior." 
The people shouted with one voice, "So he was." 

" The leopard, after a great while, went away, but not 



30 MY APING J KINGD OM. 

without giving a fearful growl of disappointment, but it 
was long before father left his hiding-place, being afraid 
of the treachery of the leopard, for they are not to be 
trusted. It was a long time before the porcupine moved 
away, and my father did not want to kill him, ' for, 5 
said he, i the porcupine has escaped from such a dan- 
gerous enemy, why should I kill him V " 

I was quite ready for the great hunt to come off in 
the morning, and went to sleep, having before my eyes 
visions of great quantities of game. 




CHAPTEE V. 

THE SPIRIT, OUR KING. GEE AT NUMBER OF PLAINTAIN- 

TREES. CURIOUS FENCE FOR GAME. WE MARCH SILENT- 
LY. WE SURROUND OURSELVES WITH FIRES. THE 

STRANGE LEGEND OF ARONDO-IENOU. 

The next morning the cries of the wild guinea-fowls 
which had come near the village awoke me. It was 
just daylight. The birds had come down from the trees 
where they had perched for the night, and were wander- 
ing in the neighboring jungle. I immediately jumped 
from my bed. It took but little time to dress, for my 
coat and my shoes were the only part of my clothing 
I had removed on lying down. By my side lay two of 
my guns. Taking a gun with me, I went to a little 
stream meandering not far from the village, and wash- 
ed my face in its cool and clear water. 

On my return I found that all the villagers were 
awake, and busy getting ready for our hunting trip. 
Remandji was standing before my hut, and, as soon as I 
made my appearance, they all shouted, " The Spirit, our 
king, is coming." 

Every one loaded himself with his own provisions 
with the exception of Remandji and myself, and some 
of the boys carried the provisions of their fathers or 
uncles in queer-looking bags. So we started. Several 
wives of the king accompanied us. Our way was along 



32 MY APINGI KING J) OM. 

a narrow hunting path which led us through some 
splendid plantations of plantain-trees and of cassada, 
which were worked by Reman dji's wives and slaves. 
Now and then we crossed through large patches of sug- 
ar - cane, planted also by Remandji's wives. Two or 
three days before, the chimpanzees had come in large 
numbers and eaten a great quantity of it. Many patch- 
es of canes had been torn up and partly destroyed on 
the spot. The Apingi and Remandji cursed the chim- 
panzees as we passed by the half -destroyed patches of 
the cane. 

After going through thousands and thousands of plant- 
ain-trees, we- took a hunting path, and, after a walk of 
about three hours, we came to the " fence," which I ex- 
amined carefully. The fence appeared to me like a 
miniature wall surrounding a fortified town ; it was 
about six feet in height, and every twenty or thirty yards 
there was a cul de sac. Each of these was about ten or 
twelve feet in length, about eighteen inches or two feet 
broad at the opening, and gradually narrowed toward the 
end, so that the game, once in, could not turn round to 
get out. The sticks were small, about six feet in height, 
stuck in the ground, and closely tied together by the help 
of creepers and lianes. This game fence was said to be 
of very great length. 

We continued our march for at least three hours aft- 
er we had passed the fence, keeping perfectly silent in 
the mean time, not a single man uttering a word, as we 
did not want to frighten the game away. At length we 
came to a spot where there was a large clearing, which 
had been made by the natives. I could see at once that 
the spot was a rendezvous for hunting parties, as there 



CAMPING FOB THE NIGHT. 33 

were remains of old fires all about, and I saw the bones 
of wild animals which had been eaten before scattered 
on the ground. Sheds had also been constructed of 
large boughs, thatched with leaves, to protect the people 
from the heavy rains. 

On each side of the camp ran a hunting path, which 
diverged from the one we had come by. One of these 
hunting paths ran straightly to the left, and the other to 
the right — that is, one went directly north, while the 
other went directly south. The path we had taken from 
Reman dji ran almost eastward. The game fence we 
had passed ran, as I had been given to understand, south 
and north, so I came to the conclusion that these two 
paths were running parallel with the fence. When I ask- 
ed Remand ji, I saw that I was not mistaken. 

This encampment which we had just reached was the 
spot where we were to spend the night ; so some of the 
men went immediately to work and collected a large 
quantity of firewood, while others went after large leaves 
to repair the sheds, which were somewhat dilapidated, as 
it had been a long time since the Apingi had come here. 
Remandji and I had our sheds close to each other. I 
lighted four fires, one at my head, one on my left, anoth- 
er on my right, and another at my feet. I always liked 
to surround myself with fire, for I did not fancy the 
snakes which often crawl about at night, and, above all, 
I did not fancy to be carried away in the jaws of a leop- 
ard, for there is no way to get out of a leopard's jaw aft- 
•er you are there, and I did not care in the least to be 
carried off in that manner, and be devoured by such a 
monster. I thought this would be no joke, and I am 
sure, my dear young folks, you think just as I do. Leop- 

B2 



34 MY APING I KIN OB OM. 

ards were plentiful, and the Apingi took great care to 
light a great many fires, for all wild beasts are afraid of 
fire. 

Each man cooked his own meal — that is to say, every 
one roasted his plantain and his meat, which was either 
a dry piece of elephant, some smoked monkey, snake, or 
fish — about bright charcoal fires. So the fragrance of 
our cooking spread from one end of the camp to the 
other. 

After our meal the time to tell stories came, and I am 
going to tell you one or two which were interesting to 
me, and may prove so to you. Okabi was to be the 
spokesman. 

" Atoongouloo-Shimba was a king, having come to his 
kingdom by law of inheritance. Atoongouloo had made 
up his mind that whoever should quarrel in his domin- 
ions he would eat. After eating people after people, he 
was left all alone. A neighboring king, called Koniam- 
bie, had a beautiful child, named Arondo-Ienou. Atoon- 
gouloo-Shimba married this daughter of Koniambie, and, 
after he had put the rings on her legs,* he started for the 
forest, to catch wild beasts with the Ashinga net, leaving 
his wife alone in the village. 

" Koniambie, besides Arondo-Ienou, had three children 
— -three boys. The eldest was called Ndjali (gun or thun- 
der). ISTdjali said he was going to take back from Atoon- 
gouloo-Shimba his sister, and Atoongouloo-Shimba ate 
Ndjali, who had come to take away his wife from him. 
He ate also the second brother. When a woman has 
several children, the last one is called Keninga. So Ee- 

* The putting of rings on the legs is like the giving of the wedding ring 
among us. 



FIGHT BETWEEN ATOONGOULOO-SHIMBA AND RENINGA. 35 

ninga came to take away his sister, and he and Atoon- 
gouloo-Shimba fought and fought from morning till the 
sun reached the meridian, but finally Atoongouloo suc- 
ceeded in. eating Reninga ; but Reninga had a fetich, 
and came out of Atoongouloo-Shimba alive.* 

" When the latter saw this, he said, ' What are you com- 
ing back for V Then he put the chalk of the Alumbi 
on Reninga and Arondo-Ienou ; then, joining their hands 
together, he blew a breath upon them, and said to Re- 
ninga, i Take your sister away.' Then Reninga took his 
sister away. After that, Atoongouloo-Shimba drowned 
himself, because his wife had been taken away from 
him. But, before dying, he said to Reninga, ' If Arondo- 
Ienou ever marries another man, she will die.' Aronao- 
Ienou did not believe the saying of Reninga, and mar- 
ried another man, and she at once died. 

"At the place where Atoongouloo drowned himself, 
when a stranger looks in the water he sees in the deep 
the body of Arondo-Ienou, and her nails appear like 
looking-glass. 

" Since that time water is often called Arondo-Ienou, 
because people can see their own likeness in it on ac- 
count of the nails of Arondo-Ienou. Before the death 
of Arondo-Ienou, the water could not reflect the image 
of people." 

* They have all sorts of monda, " fetiches, gree-grees," many of which 
are supposed to work miracles. 




CHAPTER VI. 

DIFFICULT HUNTING PATH. THE MEN SCATTER. REMANDJI 

AND MYSELF REMAIN TOGETHER. FEAR OF ELEPHANTS. 

CAPTURE OF GAME. SNAKES ARE KILLED. 

At daylight we were all up and ready. We divided 
ourselves into two parties ; one took the path which led 
northward, and the other the path which led southward. 
Remandji and I belonged to the southern party. We 
were equally divided in number, each side having about 
three hundred people. 

I saw by my compass that we were going directly 
south. Remandji and I, with a few other men, who were 
his nephews, kept in the rear of our line. This hunting 
path was an awful one. It had not been used for a long 
time, and the jungle had overgrown and covered it, and 
there were great numbers of fallen trees in our way, and 
some of these were so very big that I can assure you it 
was no joke to climb over them or go under them. 
It became very wearisome. After a while, every twenty 
or thirty yards more or less, we would station a man in 
the path, to remain there till he heard the horn sound, 
which was the signal to advance forward toward the 
west, that is to say, toward the fence. At length half of 
the men of our party had been left at different points 
along the road. Remandji and I and two of his nephews 



ADVANCING TOWARD THE GAME. 37 

halted, and let the remainder pass us and go ahead, as 
we wished to remain about in the centre. Those who 
passed us were to leave men, as had been done before, 
till none were left. Okabi was their leader. We were 
to keep perfectly still ; not a man was to uttei a word. 
Then, when the last man was posted, Okabi was to sound 
the horn, and those who had horns along the line were to 
answer the signal. 

The other half of our party, which had taken the north- 
ern path, had been doing exactly what we had done. At 
certain distances apart they had stationed their horn- 
men, who were to answer as soon as they heard the 
horns from our side, as that would be the signal that 
there were no more men to station, and that every one 
was ready to advance toward the fence. Remandji and 
I, who were at the centre of the line, waited at least one 
hour before the horn sounded; of course we did not 
hear the most distant horns, but, as soon as the farther 
one was blown, the one nearest to it answered, and so on^ 
till at last the signal was sounded all along the line, from 
the last man south to the last man north. This was the 
signal that every thing was ready. Then we advanced, 
each man straight. before him westward, that is to say, 
right toward the fence. We shouted, we hallooed, each 
man trying to shout louder than the rest. Oar only fear 
was that elephants might lie between us and the fence, 
and that in running away they would break through the 
obstructions, and that the smaller game would go through 
the gaps the elephants would make, and then escape 
from us. 

We were, I thought, about six or seven miles from the 
fence. Steadily we advanced through the thick jungle, 



3 8 M Y APING I KIN OB OM. 

which at times was terribly close ; and the only way we 
knew that we were going straight was by the many small 
branches of young trees which had been broken by par- 
ties who had been hunting here before us. 

Of course the game fled before us, for the great noise 
we made frightened them very much ; but, as they could 
run faster through the forest than we could, we did not 
expect to come to a fight or a slaughter before we reach- 
ed the fence. Our only fear, as I said, was that ele- 
phants were between us and the fence. If it was so, we 
should not get much game, and perhaps might lose it all. 

Steadily, slowly, but surely we came nearer and near- 
er the fence. At last a wild shout ran along the line. 
The fence came in sight, and what a sight it was ! Wild 
beasts of all kinds were running to and fro, mad with ter- 
ror. Hyenas, porcupines, black wild boars, gazelles, ante- 
lopes, wild cats, and even snakes were driven helter-skel- 
ter within the inclosure. They would run along the 
fence till they came to the long pouches, or cul de sac, 
and, thinking these were ways of escape, into them they 
would go, and find they were snared. 

The spears of the Apingi went through the animals 
along the whole line. The slaughter was terrific. My first 
shot was for a very large snake, some nineteen feet long, 
a python, which, seeing that he could not get through 
the fence, made in my direction, and was spreading ter- 
ror and dismay among the Apingi, for it had its mouth 
wide open, its sharp-pointed tongue was thrust a long 
way out, and its hissing could even be heard in the midst 
of the uproar that raged around us. 4 

I was glad that we had not been troubled by ele- 
phants. 



1\ ,«. ilTTT, ' ~~7*~ 




GREAT SLA TIGHTER OF BEASTS. 41 

I immediately advanced, after reloading the barrel I 
had fired. , There was a savage black boar, whose sharp 
muzzle had been thrust between the sticks of the fence, 
so that he was in a fair way to get through, but a shot 
of mine put an end to its life. A fine fat creature it 
was. I suddenly saw an ugly big wild cat, at which an 
Apingi had hurled a spear, but had missed him. The 
creature, being brought to bay, was about to spring upon 
his assailant, when, in a jiffy, I brought him down, in the 
midst of the great cheers of those around us. 

The cut de sac, which, according to the hunting laws, 
belonged to me, was filled with gazelles, which were im- 
mediately speared by the Apingi.- There was a porcu- 
pine among them, which could not have been at all a 
pleasant companion to the gazelles. It would be hard to 
say which of the creatures was the most frightened. 

The excitement all along the line was intense, and the 
loud shouts of the Apingi sounded strangely in the woods. 
But at last all quieted down again. All the game worth 
killing had been killed, and whatever was too large for 
a single man to carry was cut up in small pieces. Then, 
taking up our line of march, we followed the fence, and 
advanced toward the same main path from which we had 
separated, and before evening we were in our camping- 
ground of the day before. There we all met and count- 
ed the spoils. The slaughter of wild beasts had been 
very great. There were six wild black boars, twenty- 
three gazelles, seven porcupines, five wild cats, three hy- 
enas, seven red antelopes, and three huge snakes. These 
last were to be cooked in plantain leaves, with lemon- 
juice and plenty of Cayenne pepper, of which there is a 
great abundance in the country. 



42 MY APING I KINGB OM. 

After every body had arrived a tremendous wild shout 
of joy rang through the woods. What a pile of game 
there was ! The mouths of the Apingi extended from 
ear to ear, and showed their sharp-pointed, filed teeth. 
They were right glad of the prospect of a good supper. 

It was agreed that the game should be divided that 
evening among us. Remandji and I were to superin- 
tend the distribution. Of course, in that part of the 
world, it would not have done to give to each an equal 
share, for it would have been against the customs of the 
people. So we gave only to the heads of the families, 
and these were to divide the meat, according to their 
own will and pleasure, among the younger retainers, 
nephews, sons, and cousins, as they should think best. 
The head of a family is thought a great deal of in that 
wild part of the world. 

With Remandji's people and mine there was no quar- 
reling ; but, my goodness ! I wish you could have heard 
the Apingi quarreling among themselves. ISTot one of 
them was satisfied with his share. Every one thought 
that his neighbor had a better share than himself. Of 
course the heads of families took the lion's share. Re- 
mandji and myself each took a whole boar. These black 
boars are not so large as the yellow ones I have described 
to you in former volumes, and are far from being so 
nice-looking. 

We slept that night where we had divided the game. 
The forest was full of the smell of roasted meat, for 
there was not a man there who thought that his wife 
would be glad to have a piece of his meat. Women, 
they think, must eat when their husbands are not hun- 
gry, and the children when the mothers are satisfied. 



THE MEN MUST EAT FIRST 



43 



The wives never eat with their husbands, and it is but 
seldom, if ever, that grown-up sons and nephews eat with 
their fathers and uncles. They are supposed to be too 
young, and it would not be considered respectful for 
them to eat with their elders. So that what is left of a 
meal the wives eat, and what the wives leave the children 
eat ; if there is nothing for them, they must do the best 
they can to find food, or go hungry, as they like best. 




/" 



CHAPTEE YII. 

DEPARTURE TO' VISIT MY DOMINIONS. PRECEDED BY ONE 

HUNDRED HORN-MEN. FOLLOWED BY MY HOUSEKEEPER. 

WAR MUST NOT TAKE PLACE. 1 GET IN A FURIOUS 

RAGE. HAPPY DENOUEMENT. 

The day after my return from our hunting expedition, 
I thought it was time for me to visit the villages belong- 
ing to the country over which I had been made king ; so 
I spoke to Eemandji, who was, if I may use the expres- 
sion, my minister, or major general, and the people were 
ordered to get ready to start the next day. 

I wanted to learn the resources of the country ; see 
what the people could do, what they manufactured, and 
what the agricultural productions were, and thus be- 
come acquainted with the sort of commerce to which the 
country was best adapted. I must explore the forests to 
find out what precious woods they contained, and if we 
could obtain valuable gums and minerals for our market. 
It was arranged that I should leave with a large retinue 
of followers. My procession was to be headed by a band 
of more than one hundred horn-men. The natives are 
very fond of blowing these horns, and many of them 
have been handed down from father to son for several 
generations. They are from one to two feet in length, 
and are made of the horns of an antelope called the kam- 
bi. The kambi is a species of antelope, of a gray color, 



APPEARANCE OF THE HORN-MEN. 



45 



tr 



with whitish stripes on the 
sides. The full-grown spec- 
imens are almost as large 
as a cow. The business of 
the horn-men was to sound 
e horn whftnfivftr wh ayv 




TlJii BLO.VliNy OF KAMiil HUEN 



proached a village, in order to let the people know I was 
coming. All the horn-men were painted with yellow, 
red, and white ochre, and covered with their fetiches. 
Remand] i himself was to be followed by almost all his 
sons and many of his wives. They also were all covered 
with fetiches, and all invoked the Spirit of the Alumbi 
to be with them. 

Remandji insisted that I should take my splendid 



46 MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

housekeeper with me, whose likeness you saw in my last 
volume. " For," said he, " she must take care -of yon ; 
she has nothing else to do but to get your food ready, to 
watch over you, to drive the flies away during your sleep, 
to fetch water for you, and to scratch your head when 
you want it done." I did not like the insinuation in the 
last part of Eemandji's speech, and I said to him, "You 
know very well that I have nothing on my head." 

" But you know," replied Kemandji, " that it would be 
a disgrace to me if she did not follow you." So I gave 
way at last to the earnest entreaties of Remandji, and it 
was agreed that my housekeeper should follow me. It 
was of no use for me to fight against it. I could not get 
rid of her. 

The following morning there was a great stir in the 
village, for we were all prepared to start. As I was get- 
ting ready, what should I see but my beautiful house- 
keeper. She, too, was ready, and was bound not to let us 
go without her. The order for departure at length ar- 
rived. I wore on my shoulder my emblem of royalty 
(the " kendo"), of which I gave you a description and pic- 
ture in my last volume. I was followed by Remandji. 
I took the kendo from my shoulder, and rang it. There 
was a dead silence at once, and then a wild shout, " The 
Spirit, our king, is going to speak !" rung through the vil- 
lage. In order to impress them with awe, I fired two 
guns, loaded with tremendous charges of powder, which 
made a very loud report. Then, taking hold of my re- 
volvers, I fired and fired in the air. The Apingi fell 
upon the ground, filled with fear. Remand ji bowed 
down in front of me, and looked me steadily in the face. 
The people all at once began to sing, " Oh Spirit, oh 



TEE WARRIORS AND HORN-MEN. 47 

Spirit, thou art our king. Oh Spirit, oh Spirit, we never 
saw thee before. Oh Spirit, oh Spirit, do not send dis- 
ease and death among us. Oh Spirit, all the beasts of 
the forest will come to thee ! Oh Spirit, now thou art 
going to visit all the Apingi land. Oh Spirit, we say 
good-by to thee ! Oh Spirit, oh Spirit, we will wait for 
thee. Eemandji goes with thee — take care of him. Many 
of our people go with thee — oh take care of them all." 
Then the horns blew again, and what a noise they made ! 
And with the drums beating in the village, we soon dis- 
appeared in the forest, amid the wild shouts of the peo- 
ple that had remained behind. Forty Apingi warriors, 
armed with spears, took the lead, then the horn-men, and 
immediately after came Eemandji and myself, followed 
by the women, and also some warriors as a rear-guard. 

It was easy to see that we were not going on a hunt- 
ing expedition. 

After walking about an hour and a half, the horn-men 
again began to blow their horns, and a wild Apingi shout 
followed up. We were approaching a village.' Soon we 
came in sight of it, and then all the horn-men sounded 
the horns, and all the party shouted, " The great Spirit is 
coming to you. Remandji is with him. Be not afraid." 
When we came to the village there was not a soul in sight. 
The people had all gone inside of their houses. Tlfey 
were afraid till the voice of Eemandji bade them take 
courage, and then, one by one, they came out. In the 
mean time I went to the ouandja, and there waited. I 
fired two guns to announce my arrival. In the mean time 
the people had all assembled at the extreme end of the 
village, but as soon as they heard the gnns they bent them- 
selves low, and, in a hopping sort of a way, they advanced 



48 MY APINGI KINOD OM 

toward me, singing songs of praise. They carried their 
huge idol with them ; and finally, when they came quite 
close, they put the Mbuiti{" idol") before me, and said to it, 
" Look at the Spirit ! Behold, look at the Spirit ! Look, 
look at our king !" This idol was the imitation of a man, 
and had been carved from a very large piece of wood. 
My goodness gracious ! it did look ugly enough. 

Then presents of food were brought before me, plant- 
ains, bananas, pine-apples, pea-nuts, fowls, dried fish, and 
a goat. 

Remandji seemed to be in his glory. At night a grand 
ball was given in my honor, but, being somewhat weary, 
I retired early, for in the morning a great palaver was 
to take place, and I was to settle it. 

Early the next morning I seated myself under a very 
large tree to receive the people of the village and hear 
the palaver. After a while the village drums began to 
beat. The drummers were at the other end of the vil- 
lage. Afterward the people began to sing, and at last I 
saw a crowd coming toward me. In the mean time Re- 
mandji had made his appearance, accompanied by the 
hundred horn-men, who began to blow their horns, so 
that, between the noise of the tam-tam and the music of 
the horns, I found myself in not a very quiet place. The 
chief of the village then came before me, followed by for- 
ty-three girls. He talked to Reman dji, and said that he 
was so glad the Spirit had come to see him. Like the 
other chiefs with Rem an dji, he had made him their king. 
He himself was poor. He had not many things to give 
away, as the Spirit had, like the sand. The black man is 
poor. He has only plenty to eat, and his coat — pointing 
to mine — is his own skin. Then, turning himself to- 



I FIRE A GUN IN THE AIR. 49 

ward me, he said, " Here are forty-three nice girls. Some 
of them are my daughters, others are nieces, others are 
my ehildrens' children, and some are the children of the 
big men of my village. Take them, Spirit ; we give them 
all to thee to be thy wives." There was a tremendous 
shout of approbation. Immediately the drums began to 
beat, the men began to blow their horns, and the people 
began to dance round me, and they danced and danced 
till I thought they must be crazy. Old Remandji him- 
self got so excited that he could not withstand the tempt- 
ation, and, getting on his feet, he cut up any amount of 
capers. The whole village was wild with excitement. 
Single persons would come and speak to me before the 
people with a sonorous voice, but I could not understand 
what they said. At last I fired a gun into the air. In 
an instant all became quiet, and I said, " Apingi, I will 
sleep in many of your villages ; I will eat plantains 
with you, for I want you to remember me, for you made 
me your king. Now go away to your houses. When the 
sun will go down, when the heat of the day will have 
passed away, you will come back under this big tree, and 
if you have any palaver, Bemandji and I will talk about 
it." The people at once scattered. I wondered what there 
was in me to fill these poor people with so much wonder 
and astonishment, and I thanked a kind Providence that 
took such great care of me, and that had directed my 
steps in such a manner that I could safely visit countries 
that had never been seen before by civilized man. 

To my utter astonishment, when the people went away, 
the forty-three girls did not move. I remembered that I 
had not said a word about them. It was evident they 
considered themselves my wives, as they had been given 

C 



50 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

away to me. Woman in that country has no will of hei 
own ; her father, uncles, and other male members of her 
family have to guide her and tell her what to do ; so, if I 
was willing, they were to belong to me. While I was 
thinking it over they all got into a quarrel, as the old 
housekeeper insisted on being the head of them all, and 
I wandered away, leaving them to settle the dispute 
among themselves. 

When I returned to my seat under the big tree in the 
afternoon, the women were still there waiting for me, 
just as I had left them in the morning. The quarrel was 
not settled, and the old housekeeper was still cross and 
ugly. Then the villagers came about me again. I said 
to them, " I must go. I have slept in your village one 
night, and now I must go to see other villages." But 
the people, as soon as they heard me, shouted, " Spirit, 
do not go away ! Spirit, do not go away!" I rang my 
kendo as loud as I could to make them quiet, and, when 
silence was restored, told them that if there was trouble 
among them, if there was quarreling and palavers to set- 
tle, they must come to me and to Remandji, with the old 
men of villages, and we would settle them. They an- 
swered, " Good Spirit, we have no quarrel just now." 

Then I got up, and, turning to the horn-blowers, I or- 
dered them to blow the signal for our departure. The 
horns sounded, and I was ready to start for a village not 
far away. A short walk would take us there. But here 
a sad dilemma arose. " Oh Spirit," said the chief to 
me, " take all of thy wives with thee ; they will follow 
thee through the Apingi country." And all the women 
began to sing, " We will follow the good Spirit through 
the Apingi country ; we will prepare food for him ; we 



MY FORTY-THREE COOES. 51 

will catch fish for him ; we will fetch water for him ; we 
will get wild berries for him !" And so they went on 
singing, and I thought I was merely going to have forty- 
three cooks to accompany me, for it seemed as if I could 
never get rid of them. But at last I pacified them by 
distributing a great number of trifling presents among 
them, and then took my departure amidst great cheer- 
ing. I had not proceeded far on my route to the next 
village, however, when, turning round, I saw, to my great 
consternation, that we were followed by the forty-three 
women, and many warriors besides ! 

After walking about an hour I came to a queer vil- 
lage. There were very many huts, and the walls of these 
were built of the bark of trees, and the roofs were thatch- 
ed with palm leaves. There were no windows, and only 
one door to each hut ; they were all built alike, about ten 
feet long, and only seven or eight feet broad. The na- 
tives had been expecting us, and welcomed me with the 
sounds of drums, and with wild Apingi shouts. It was 
a big village, built in a single street. The name of the 
old man who was chief over the village was Andeko. I 
went to bed very early, for I was tired, and the noise 
they had made was so great. There was a dead silence 
during the night, for it was announced that the Spirit 
was tired, and wanted to rest. 

Early the next morning I was awakened by wild shouts 
of war. I jumped from my couch, and, with my gun in 
hand, came out, looking as fierce as I could. I exclaim- 
ed, "Apingi, what do you mean ? There must be no war 
among yourselves. Woe to the man who brings on war 
in the Apingi country, for I will slay him. I will kill 
him as sure as I kill that bird." For, luckily, just as I 



5 2 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

was speaking, a bird flew near the hut where I stood, and 
gave me the chance to impress the natives with a sense 
of my skill and power. I shot it flying, and it fell stone- 
dead just at the feet of the chief Andeko. A wild shout 
of fear was heard through the crowd, and many fled from 
me. " How can it be," they said, " that birds flying high 
in the sky should fall dead at our chiefs feet when the 
great Spirit lets the thunder that he holds in his hands 
(meaning my gun) make a noise ?" And then they sung, 
" Big Spirit, do not be angry. We do not want to make 
war. Some people want to make war upon us." I look- 
ed fierce, and, taking one of my revolvers in one hand, I 
fired and fired until the crowd shouted, " Spirit, our king, 
be not angry ; Spirit, our king, do not kill the Apingi 
people." 

Turning to Eemandji, I said, " There must be no war. 
I must know the cause of this trouble." Then I rang 
my kendo, and ordered the people to come before me 
and I would hear the palaver. 

They came, and brought before me a beautiful black 
girl ; that is, she was beautiful for that country. I do 
not think you would say she was very handsome, for her 
teeth were filed into sharp points, and she was tattooed 
all over, Apingi fashion. She was young, only about 
fourteen years of age. Then they brought to her side a 
young man about twenty-four years of age. He was a 
nephew of the king. The young girl had fled from her 
own village one dark evening, in the midst of a tremen- 
dous rain-storm, and had come to this village. The name 
of the girl was Mishono, and the nephew of the king 
was called Ngooloo-Gani. 

I eyed Mishono and Ngooloo-Gani with a look which 



A QUEER CEREMONY. 53 

told them plainly that there could be no war on this oc- 
casion. While they stood before me they trembled all 
over. 

Then the king said, " Oh Spirit, in our land, when a 
girl runs away from a village and comes to another, that 
village can not give her back without feeling shame. In 
the Apingi country we never give back a woman that 
comes to us. In her village, they want her to marry 
somebody she does not like, and she loves my nephew, 
and she thought she would rather run away than to go 
and marry where she does not want. She has bola 
bongo, ' put her hand on my head,' and you know this is 
our way of claiming protection ; and how can I, without 
shame, give her back?" And the people all shouted, 
" How can we, without shame, give her back T 

This custom of adoption is a singular one, and pre- 
vails in all this part of Africa. When a man or woman 
runs away to another village, the first thing they have to 
do is to put themselves under the protection of some 
man. So, when they reach the place where they want to 
stay, they go to the man and put their hands upon his 
head, and this ceremony is called bola bongo. Hence- 
forth they belong to the man, and he is bound to protect 
them. You will agree with me that this is a singular 
custom. 

I questioned the girl, and she said, while tears rolled 
down her cheeks, " Spirit, I am afraid of thee. Oh, why 
did not I die the day I was born ! Now I do not want 
to marry the man my people want me to marry. Wom- 
en, oh Spirit, are shame in this country, and can be given 
away like goats and wild game, for our laws are such 
that her people do not ask whom she wants to marry. 



54 M T APINGI KINGB OM. 

She is even given away again after her husband is dead. 
After her time of mourning is past she has no choice, 
but must marry his brother, whether she likes him or 
not. If she does not, she had better not tell it, for she is 
flogged, and her body is torn with the whip. No, Spir- 
it, I do not want to marry the man my people wants me 
to. I had rather be killed or be eaten up by the wild 
beasts. I do not want to go back." When she stopped 
speaking the people shouted, " We do not want to send 
her back, for shame would be upon us if we did ; all the 
other villages would laugh at us, and call us f chickens.' 
We do not want to be called chickens." 

" Oh Spirit," said Mishono to me, " oh Spirit, do not 
be angry !" and the people also cried, " Oh Spirit, do not 
be angry ! do not be angry !" 

This was certainly a very complicated palaver, and in 
this part of Africa such things always bring on war. I 
wanted to avert war, and at the same time I had to give 
a just verdict. So I called Ngooloo-Gani, and said to 
him, " What have you to say for yourself ?" " Spirit," said 
he, " this girl wants to marry me. She has run away 
from her village, and has bola bongo on the head of our 
chief, and it would be a great shame for our people to 
give her back, for we never do such a thing in the Apingi 
country ; but in the moon, where you come from, you 
may have other fashions. Oh Spirit, do not be angry ! 
Do not kill me !" Then the poor fellow kneeled down 
and got hold of my feet, which is, as you know, the 
most imploring way of asking a great favor in the region 
of Equatorial Africa. 

I got up, and immediately ordered some Apingi to go 
and tell the people of the village where the girl came 



THREE HUNDRED MEN TAKE THE WAR-PATH 55 

from, to come instantly to see me. I wanted to see the 
chief and the leading men, and I said, in order that they 
might not be afraid, " Two of you must remain in their 
village." So they went, and, as the village was not very 
far off, they came back in less than two hours, but with 
no one with them. The answer was that they did not 
want to talk the palaver. On receiving this message I 
rose to my feet, and, in a very loud tone of voice, began 
to speak in all the languages I knew — Apingi, Ashira, 
Commi, French, English, etc. I w r as very fierce. Oh, 
how they stared at me ! " They dare me," I exclaimed. 
" They won't come when I bid them come !" I fired off 
my gun, I brandished it in the air, I flourished my re- 
volver, I then rang my kendo, and told Remand ji to pre- 
pare for a fight. Then I ordered the people of the vil- 
lage to go and fetch their spears, their battle-axes, and 
their bows and arrows, and their war-drums. The horns 
sounded the war tunes ; messengers were sent to Re- 
mand] i's village for more men to come. The idol was 
brought out, the men painted themselves and covered 
themselves with fetiches. " Onward, Apingi ! onward 
for that village !" I shouted. Over three hundred men 
took the war-path. I led the way, and, as they followed, 
they sang their war-songs, and brandished their spears 
and their knives. When we approached the villages the 
war-songs were sung louder and louder, and the warriors 
became more exasperated. I was glad to see this, be- 
cause I wanted to make an example. As we came near- 
er I heard the war-drums in the village, and the people 
shouting. I fired a gun into the air as I entered the vil- 
lage. I had put in a tremendous charge, and it went off 
with a fearful detonation. The recoil was so great that 



5 6 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

it almost knocked me down. The detonation resounded 
from hill to hill, and carried terror to the hearts of the 
timid villagers, who, at sight of ns, retreated to the far- 
ther end, from which position they fled as we approach- 
ed. But I told Eemandji to shout to them not to be 
afraid. I did not come to kill them ; they had made me 
their king. I was their father. A father did not kill 
iliis children unless the children wanted to make war. 
So Remandji shouted, " The Spirit bids you come. He 
does not want to kill you unless you dare to make war 
upon us. He comes to talk the palaver over the girl that 
ran away." 

They had all fled, but at last the chief came again ; for 
I sent word that if he did not come I would burn his vil- 
lage. He was followed by his head wife. I went to- 
ward him. On looking at him, I recognized him as one 
who had brought me food, and had been my friend. 
Round his neck he wore the beads which I had given 
him, and as bracelets he wore two brass rings which I 
had also given him. I went up to him, I shook hands 
with him, and told him not to be afraid, but to call his 
people together, as I had come to hold a palaver. So he 
went away, and a little while afterward came back with 
his people. We went under the big ouandja, and, after 
every body had seated himself, Eemandji got up, and, 
addressing himself to the people, said, " The Spirit want- 
ed to come and see you in peace, and you have threaten- 
ed to make war. But it is a good thing that you did not 
make war, for you would have been all killed by this 
time. By the breath of his nostrils he would have sent 
death unto you all. You know that many of your daugh- 
ters, sisters, and nieces are married in our villages, and 



A MARRIA GE PAL A VER. 5 7 

that war between ourselves must not take place, for 
there are not two villages in the whole tribe that are 
more friendly with each other than yours and ours. The 
Spirit and I have held the palaver this morning. You 
know that one of the girls of our village is soon to mar- 
ry a man of yours." Here Remandji called the man. 
He proved to be an old man, and I wondered why he 
wanted to marry. He was very ugly-looking. Half of 
his file-teeth had dropped out, and what were left were 
very black and dirty. Remand ji went on : " Well, we will 
ask no dowry for that girl — no more slaves, no more 
goats, and no more things. So the palaver will be set- 
tled, and Mishono will remain with Ngooloo - Gani." 
There was a tremendous shout of " Yo ! yo ! yo !" which 
meant " Yes, that is so." 

So this offer was accepted at once, for the parents of the 
girl in Remand] i's village wanted from the old fellow I 
have just described to you two slaves, three goats, ten 
fowls, five cooking-dishes, three water-jars, five spears, 
and three large knives, before they would give away 
their daughter. So the people thought they had made a 
splendid bargain. 

Immediately the two contending parties separated to 
a distance of about forty yards, then advanced with their 
spears in hand toward each other, just as if they were 
going to fight, uttering, at the same time, fierce Apingi 
shouts till they met ; then the spears came down, the war- 
drums beat, the horns blew, the palaver was over, and T 
had stopped the threatened war. Then I presented the 
king with a waistcoat, which he wore in the mftlst of 
the most vociferous cheers of his people. That night 
there was a tremendous jollification in the real old Apin- 

C2 



58 



MY APINGI KINGDOM. 



gi style. A war-dance, and then all was over. Toward 
two o'clock in the morning all had become silent. The 
people had all returned, and nothing was to be heard 
except now and then the barking of the dogs, and the 
wild cries of hyenas lurking round in the forest. As I 
came out, as usual, to make an inspection of every thing 
round me, all was quiet, the sky was beautifully clear, 
and the southern stars were shining in all their glory. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

A HUNT IN CANOES. AN ANTELOPE PURSUED. 1 AM NEAR- 
LY CAPSIZED. KILLING OF THE ANTELOPE. RETURN TO 

THE VILLAGE. 

The palaver being settled to the great joy of every 
body, the people said I must leave to hunt with the 
dogs, as antelopes had been seen the last few days on 
the neighboring plantations. So, early in the morning, 
all the dogs of the village were collected together, and a 
number of hunters from other villages had also come 
with their dogs. We had altogether more than twenty 
dogs in the pack, and anticipated a very exciting time. 
The Apingi forming the hunting party were armed with 
spears. As soon as the party was ready, we set out for 
a plantation not far from the bank of a river or creek, 
which ran near the village, and where antelopes were 
supposed to be quite plentiful. The little canoes of the 
Apingi were in readiness, with paddles in, at different 
places on the river bank, for it was supposed that some 
of the antelopes would be driven into the water by the 
dogs. 

So we started, Eemandji and the villagers wishing us 
good luck. We tramped away through the jungle, and 
in less than an hour reached a plantation of cassada (ma- 
nioc), the leaves of which antelopes and gazelles are very 
fond of. This plantation was not far from the river. 



60 MY APINOI KINQD OM. 

The dogs started off, and soon we heard them barking. 
The barking became loud and eager ; it came nearer and 
nearer, and we knew the dogs must be after an antelope. 
The j were evidently making toward the river, near which 
our party was posted. There was no time to be lost. 
We must hurry to the river side, and enter the canoe, to 
be ready in case the animal should plunge into the wa- 
ter to escape to the other side. I tell you, we went 
double-quick. Hollo ! hollo ! a cry of pain escaped from 
me, for the prickly branches of a long, thorny brier were 
round my leg. In my eagerness to go fast, I did not 
perceive it until it tore my pantaloons, and some of the 
thorns stuck into my legs. At last I got clear of it 
and hurried on. Okabi followed me closely. We soon 
came to the banks of the river. A superb antelope, with 
a magnificent pair of horns, was already in the water, 
and the infuriated dogs were after her. The last of the 
pack were just plunging in, and those that were in the 
water were swimming as fast as they could in pursuit. 
Three canoes were already in the water, the Apingi pad- 
dling as fast as they could toward the antelope. I jumped 
into a canoe with Okabi so impatiently that I almost lost 
my equilibrium. The canoe rocked from side to side, 
and for a moment I thought it was all over with me, and 
that I was going to be upset, gun and all, into the water, 
which, by the way, was very deep there. Then good-by 
to my hunting for that day. Okabi uttered a loud cry, 
in the hope, I suppose, of averting the danger. But the 
little canoe became steady once more, and I seated my- 
self on the bottom. It was an old affair, and leaked like 
an old basket, and having no seat, I got very uncomfort- 
ably wet. Never mind, I thought, the antelope is ahead 



FURIOUS CHASE IN A CANOE. Ql 

of us. " Hurry, Okabi !" I shouted. " Hurry up ! we 
must catch the antelope ! We must kill it ; we must 
carry off the honors of the hunt !" Okabi did not need 
any pushing ; he felt exactly as I did, and we both pad- 
dled with all our strength. Three spears lay ready at 
the bottom of the canoe by my side. The chase became 
more and more exciting ; nearer and nearer we came to 
the antelope. We soon passed one canoe, but two were 
still ahead of us, and these were not far from the ante- 
lope. " Hurry, Okabi !" I shouted. The fellow paddled 
as if his life was at stake, and by this time was covered 
with perspiration. We at last passed the two canoes. 
We were ahead of every body. The antelope, which had 
been carried by the current down the river, was nearing 
the shore. As soon as we were near enough, I cried out 
to Okabi to stop. He obeyed, steadying the canoe with 
his paddle. I took up my gun, and aimed at the ante- 
lope. There was danger that, if I missed it, I might kill 
one of the dogs. I took my chance, and fired. The 
ball hit the antelope in the right place, and the water 
was reddened with its blood. I fired again, but the ca- 
noe rocked a little just as I pulled the trigger, and the 
ball missed the mark. By this time the antelope had 
struggled to land, but as it came out of the water it drop- 
ped dead on the bank. The excited dogs sprang bark- 
ing about the body, and we had the greatest trouble to 
drive them away. 

We returned to the village, where we were welcomed 
with shouts of joy. I took a hind quarter for my share, 
and gave the rest to Reman dji to divide among his peo- 
ple. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



BEAUTIFUL SIGHT OF PALM-TREES. HOW PALM-OIL IS MANU- 
FACTURED. ITS VALUE. INDIA-RUBBER VINES. A LEOP- 
ARD. HE IS TRACKED. TERRIBLE SUSPENSE. THE LEOP- 
ARD IS KILLED. 

The people had learned that I wanted no war, and 
promised to remain peaceful. I left the village the next 
day, and continued my journey through the jungle, vis- 
iting the Apingi villages, and at the same time studying 
the natural resources of the country, the crowd accom- 
panying me increasing all the time as I passed village 
after village. We came at length to a village surround- 
ed with immense groves of palm-trees, which, indeed, 
were scattered all over the forest in great numbers. 
These palm-trees were covered with large bunches of 
yellow nuts, from which palm-oil is derived, which forms, 
perhaps, the most important article of trade on the west 
coast of Africa. Knowing it to be very abundant, I con- 
cluded that a good trade in palm-oil could be made with 
the Coast, and that, if it was conducted on the right prin- 
ciple, and not by exchanging oil for rum, the Apingi 
would do very well. So I fixed my head-quarters in a 
village where the manufacture of palm-oil was carried on 
on a large scale, the inhabitants selling it to the people of 
all the other villages. It is used very extensively among 
the Africans. Every woman in a village must have a 



GEO YE OF PALM- OIL-TREES. 63 

little calabash of palm-oil to make her toilet with. They 
rub their bodies with it, it is used as a kind of pomade 
for their hair, and they use it as we do butter in food. 
I can assure you that the heads of these people do not 
smell very agreeably, as they never wash, while they 
keep putting palm-oil on their hair day after day, month 
after month, year after year ; the fragrance is any thing 
but delightful. 

I was much pleased to see these people industrious in 
the manufacture of palm-oil. Perhaps you would like 
to have a description of the town where this manufac- 
ture was carried on. You must not expect to hear about 
huge smoking chimneys, tall buildings with a great num- 
ber of windows, and a great many men and women at 
work. 

How beautiful is the sight of these palm-trees ! How 
tall and graceful they are, and how splendid their fruit 
looks ! The palm - trees about the village were kept 
very carefully, and were never destroyed, for every year 
they bore fruits which brought a great revenue to the 
village. The forest was filled with knots of women seat- 
ed on the ground, who had clubbed together for the 
manufacture of the oil. After it had been manufac- 
tured they divided the proceeds. 

Each little company was very busy. There would be 
seated women having three or four large earthenware 
cooking-pots filled up with palm-oil nuts, which they 
were boiling. After being thoroughly boiled, these were 
given to other women, who had before them a large 
wooden mortar some ~h.Ye or six feet long, about twelve 
or eighteen inches broad, and a foot deep, made of a 
single piece of wood. The boiled nuts were put into 



64 



MY APING I KINGDOM. 



these mortars, and pounded 
by the women with heavy 
pestles made of the hardest 
kind of wood. The palm- 
oil nut has a very large and 
heavy kernel, of the size of 
our walnuts, which is very 
thick, and exceedingly hard, 
so much so that I doubt very 
much, though I have never 
tried it, whether a nut-crack- 
er could break it. The kernel 
is covered with a fibrous pulp, 
which is about the fourth or 
fifth part of an inch thick, 
and which is almost literally 
made of oil. It is hard, but 




MAKING PALM-OIL. 



MANUFA CTURE OF PALM- OIL. £5 

when the nut is boiled becomes soft. The nuts grow in 
large bunches, and each palm-tree bears several of these 
bunches. They grow near the trunk, where the branches 
spring out ; and the nuts are very close together, several 
hundred of them growing in a single bunch. 

These nuts at first are blackish, then, as they ripen, and 
especially on the side toward the sun, become of a bright 
yellow, from which the palm-oil derives its color. 

After the nuts have been boiled and pounded, the oil 
is put into another cooking-pot, and then put over the 
fire, and the oil allowed to boil for a little while. They 
then let it rest and cool, and then carefully pour it out, 
taking great care not to disturb the dregs at the bottom, 
which is chiefly composed of the fibres of the nuts. Then 
the oil is put carefully in little calabashes and carried to 
market. 

The men take but a small share in the work. They 
have only to climb the trees, and cut off the bunches, and 
bring them to the women. The nuts are picked from 
the bunches before boiling. Before they have attained 
their full growth, these nuts have thorny points at the 
end. They are not round, and not even in size or shape, 
on account of being pressed against each other closely 
while growing in the bunches. 

It was pleasant to see these people hard at work, and 
I had a real nice time with them. When night came on 
I slept in the midst-of them ; and one of the men came 
and kindly presented me with two fat rats for my dinner. 

But I could see at a glance how little the African 
trade could be increased. Here was a region that could 
have little or no trade whatever with the Coast, for there 
were too many tribes between it and the sea. 



06 MY APINOI KINGD OM. 

How cheap was the oil! A few beads would buy a 
gallon of it. A factory established here could do a large 
if not very profitable business, and in course of time more 
ready intercourse might be established with the Coast. 
The business, once set on foot, would require but little 
care. The trees bear every year, and the only thing to 
be done would be to gather the nuts and make the oil in 
the manner I have described. 

Palm-oil has always a ready sale in civilized countries. 
It is used extensively in the manufacture of soap, can- 
dles, and in some countries of Europe it is used instead 
of tallow to grease railway and carriage wheels, and ma- 
chinery. 

I forgot to mention that there is in the kernel of the 
palm-nut a large seed, from which a great quantity of oil 
can be extracted. 

The next morning, before my departure, I received 
presents of many calabashes of oil. 

In proceeding to another village I saw what I had no- 
ticed before, that the whole forest was filled with India- 
rubber vines. As the vines are very plentiful in these 
forests, an enormous quantity of India-rubber could be 
extracted from them in the manner which I have already 
described to you in Stories of the Gorilla Country. This 
might be made a large trade. The India-rubber could 
be bought for next to nothing, and the profits would be 
enormous, and a good market could be found. So here 
were two productions which the Apingi could collect in 
great quantities. There were also immense numbers of 
ebony-trees, the wood of which is so beautiful, and which 
could be exported in large quantities, if we could only 
have a free road to the Coast. 



DISCO VER Y OF LEOPARD' S FOO TPRINTS. ffl 

That night we were to sleep in the forest ; so, before 
sunset, we built a large camp for shelter. But there was 
no sleep for me ; the leopards were too plentiful, and 
their dismal and ferocious howls resounding not far from 
the camp told me that we had better keep a bright look- 
out. I forbade any one to move out of the light of the 
fires during the night ; but there was little need of the 
caution, as they knew very well that if they did they 
would never come back to the camp. The next day I 
proposed a leopard-hunt. The next morning, when I got 
up, and said we must find the lair of the leopard, the peo- 
ple seemed to back down ; but I was not willing to give 
it up, as the leopards were evidently not far from us, and 
their lair must be near by. I wanted only four Apingi 
to go with me. 

So I called four of the warriors. I gave two guns to 
them, and one preferred to go with his war spears. 

After a while we came to the bank of a little stream, 
where I discovered the footprints of a huge leopard in 
the soft ground. What paws ! It must be an old and 
ferocious animal. I have not the slightest doubt that 
the monster was an old fellow, and that it was the one 
that came so near our camp during the night, and noth- 
ing but the big fires we kept up had frightened him 
away and prevented him from pouncing upon us. Un- 
less the leopard had caught something last night he must 
be fearfully hungry, and, consequently, very fierce. T 
must look out, for, in that case, if I see him I will have 
but very little time to fire, for in a jiffy he will spring 
upon me, said I to myself. 

So I carefully followed along the banks of the stream 
the footprints of the huge cat. If he sees me first he 



6 8 MY APING I KINQB OM. 

may pounce upon me, as a cat does upon a mouse. I 
must be careful. The Apingi are watchful. They 
look all round; their ears are ready to hear the least 
noise. All at once I hear a cluck from one of the men. 
I stop; he points out to me a spot ahead, just by the 
stream, where the underbrush or jungle is very thick. 
Huge trees have fallen one upon another, and it is im- 
possible to see through the mass. The leopard must be 
there. This dark place must be his abode for the day. 
There he hides himself and sleeps, and from there he 
starts upon his depredations, spreading fear and terror 
among beasts and men. I stand ready to fire at a sec- 
ond's notice. I wish you could have seen me. I knew 
that it was a matter of life and death with me. I fol- 
low the track of the leopard, for it had walked all along 
the little stream. The Apingi men are not mistaken. 
Suddenly the footprints leave the river, and the last I 
see of them show that the animlil has retired into that 
thick, dark, and almost impenetrable part of the jungle 
where the Apingi had told me that the leopard was con- 
cealed. This is dangerous game. I can not see the en- 
emy. It is dangerous to go in. I can not back out ; I 
dare not show the Apingi that I am afraid. But then I 
do not wish to be killed by an infuriated leopard. 

The best thing I can do is to use caution as I enter 
the thicket. The Apingi are almost afraid to go in. 
But we must do it. I lead. Oh, I wish I had some na- 
tive dogs with me ; they would bark and show us the lair 
of the leopard. After a while I succeeded in climbing 
to the top of the huge tree that had been blown down 
by a tornado. It is at least ten feet in diameter. When 
once lodged there I take a view of the surroundings. 



AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION 69 

The Apingi are close at my back. They are evidently 
afraid, and, for myself, I do not feel very comfortable, 
for you will agree with me that it is a difficult position 
to be in, not to see the exact location of such a danger- 
ous enemy as the leopard, which at any moment might be 
down on my back, his claws fastened in my shoulders, 
and his big teeth in my neck. Such thoughts were not 
very reassuring to a worn traveler. 

I must confess that I was very much excited. I look- 
ed round and round. The slightest noise made by the 
wind through the trees would startle me. I thought the 
leopard was close at hand and ready to spring upon me. 
I would have given a good deal to see him. Carefully I 
came down the trunk of the huge tree, and continued to 
press forward with my Apingi into the thickest part of 
this already very thick jungle. 

Suddenly the faces of my Apingi men become excited. 
They stop walking. The strong odor of the leopard is 
clearly perceptible : he is evidently not far from us. We 
are upon the leopard, and he is probably eying us, and 
ready to make a spring. We must hurry to see him, 
for surely destruction is coming upon us unless we de- 
stroy the animal. I look ahead into a thick bush, where 
were a large number of broken branches. It seems 
almost dark, though it is not noon yet, and the sky is 
clear, and the sun shines resplendently. Every thing 
round is in gloom. A cold shiver runs through me. A 
feeling of insecurity begins to possess me. I must check 
it, for, if I do not, my arm will not be steady, and I shall 
miss the monster if I see him. The thought of home 
and friends rushed- to my mind. The feeling of insecu- 
rity suddenly disappeared. I must conquer this big 



70 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

wild cat of the forest. If he is wary, I too must be 
wary. 

Whew ! hallo ! I see the monster ! He is lying on the 
dead branch of a tree. He leaps upon the ground and 
crouches upon it. His long tail wags to and fro, showing 
that he is enraged. His eyes glisten with a singular 
light ; he is ready to spring. He springs, but, just as his 
body seems to rise from the ground, a tremendous and 
deadly steel-pointed bullet goes through his head, and 
three spears of the Apingi are plunged into his body. 
The monster rolls on the ground upon his back, uttering 
fearful yells of pain that fill the forest, and drive every 
living animal from the neighborhood. By this time my 
breath is taken away. I am so excited that my heart 
beats with fearful quickness. I must be pale as death, 
for the excitement is great ; for, one second more, and 
the monster would have made its deadly spring, which 
would have been destruction to me. 

I was glad when the chase was over, and I concluded 
that I would rather chase the leopard at night with a 
goat tied to a tree for a lure ; but then I must not do as 
I did once before — fall asleep with the goat — as I have 
previously described to you, for, perhaps, instead of tak- 
ing the goat, it might take me. 

When we got back to the camp there was an immense 
excitement. The Apingi said that they had killed the 
leopard also, for three of their spears had been in his 
body. It was a huge old fellow. I wish you could have 
seen his teeth and his large paws. What tremendous 
claws it had ! With a blow of his paw the monster could 
have killed the strongest man. 

I was greatly pleased to secure this animal, for its skin 



IN A DILEMMA. 



71 



was superb, and I knew that I would gladden the heart 
of some friend at home when I should present it to him. 
Here, again, more cooks were to be fastened on me, 
the people insisting that twenty of their women should 
follow Eemandji and myself. With my old housekeeper, 
and the forty-three cooks, I had now sixty-four cooks. 




LAIB OF THE LEOPARD. 



CHAPTER X. 

MANUFACTUKE OF POTTEKY. — NUMEROUS COOKS. — PLANTAIN 
PLANTATIONS. 

The next morning I started again on my journey, and 
visited a good many small Apingi villages. At length I 
came to one where the manufacture of earthenware was 
carried on extensively by the people. Cooking utensils 
and water-jars were made in great numbers with a kind 
of grayish clay. Pipes were also manufactured, for I 
must tell you that the Apingi cultivate tobacco extensive- 
ly in their country, and are very much given to smoking. 

The people of the village had seen me at Remandji's, 
and were not afraid. I had hardly entered the village 
when the good chief came to meet me with thirteen 
women, and courteously insisted that I should take them 
for wives and cooks. Of course I declined, but the chief 
insisted that they should follow me, with the other sixty- 
four, wherever I traveled in the Apingi country. 

The way these simple people worked their pottery was 
very primitive. They would work and pound the clay 
till it was thoroughly mixed, and every particle of it very 
fine. Then they would mould it into the shape of the 
vases or pots they wanted to have, and, when these had 
been fashioned and finished exactly as they wished, they 
would put them in the shade under a veranda or shed. 
When hardened a little they are gradually exposed to 
the sun till they are quite hard, and then they are baked 



APINGI DAINTIES. 73 

over a fire. I give you the shape of these vases in the 
annexed engraving. I found that among all the tribes 
they were of the same shape. The cannibals made pot- 
tery exactly as these Apingi. 



COOKING-POT. WATER-JAK. 



The large water-jugs are the most difficult to manu- 
facture, and are rather fragile. They have to make a 
frame of wicker-work, upon which they lay the clay. 
Calabashes are used extensively for water-vessels. 

I was pleased to find that many of the Apingi villages 
had remained long at the same place ; for the Apingi, un- 
like almost all the tribes that surround them, do not feel 
the necessity of moving their village after a death or 
two. The people would show me trees bearing berries 
or fruits in the shape of an olive, which had often been 
planted by their fathers, or by themselves when young. 
So ovation after ovation kept following me as I came to 
village after village. I was a real king, and was treat- 
ed as such. Feast after feast was given me by the chiefs, 
and such queer bills of fare as we had ! Such dainties as 
came upon the table ! Why, there were mice, rats, squir- 

D 



74 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

rels, monkeys, snakes, turtles, fish, eels, hyena, etc. ; but 
not one of them could give me such a feast as good old 
Obindji had given to me and to my powerful friend King 
Quengueza. 

I do not know why, but every day in that far Apingi 
country I loved to think of good old Quengueza. I loved 
to think of Gambo, of Malaouen, and of poor Querla- 
ouen. Poor Querlaouen, how much I miss him since his 
death ! I can hardly believe that he is no more. How 
brave he was ! This you know as well as I do. What a 
kind heart God had given to his poor savage nature ! But 
you will no more read of our hunting together when I 
return to his country. 

On my way home, after a few more days of travel 
in my new kingdom, I felt tired as I came in the even- 
ing to a large plantation where there was an innumer- 
able number of plantain-trees, and a great many bore 
immense bunches. The plantain bunch is much like 
that of the banana, and ripens like it by turning yellow 
or red, according to the variety. It is much larger than 
the banana, coarser, very sweet when ripe, and delight- 
ful eating when roasted. There are a great number of 
-varieties of plantain, far more so than of banana. Some 
of the trees bear after six or eight months, others take a 
year, some a year and a half. There are varieties that 
bear prodigious bunches, weighing from one hundred to 
one hundred and fifty pounds. In the interior they flour- 
ish splendidly, and now and then you see bunches much 
heavier than one hundred and fifty pounds. 

Now I will explain to you how the best plantain plan- 
tations are made, and you will see that there is no other 
species of food that can be raised in such a quantity on 
so small a lot of land. 



ROW A PLANTATION IS MADE. 75 

Of course yon are aware that the banana and plantain 
trees, without exception, bear only a single bunch, and 
then die. The varieties that bear the quickest have the 
smallest bunches. A great many of these weigh only 
from twenty to twenty-five pounds, and sometimes even 
less. But judge of the quantity of food which an acre 
of ground can bear when planted with the varieties of 
trees that bear the heaviest bunches. A plantation is 
stocked with the shoots of the plantain-tree. The plan- 
tain shoots are set out about six feet apart, and sometimes 
more. Other shoots spring from them — sometimes as 
many as six or eight before the tree has done bearing 
and dies. Each of these shoots become trees themselves, 
and bear ; a few of these are retransplanted, in order to 
give the others more room to grow. 

The shade of plantain-trees, after they have grown to a 
certain height, prevents every kind of weeds from grow- 
ing under them ; hence, after a plantation has been started 
well — that is to say, that the young plantain-trees have 
grown healthy and strong, and the foliage has become 
thick, it requires no care at all. 

Now let us say that six square feet of land will give 
six plantain-trees, which bear six bunches of plantains 
within two years. If the plantains belong to. the heavy- 
bunch variety, these will weigh about from eighty to one 
hundred and twenty pounds — to make an average, we 
will say one hundred pounds. So in two years six hun- 
dred pounds of food have been produced on six square 
feet of land. But then the weight of the skin and of 
the stem must be deducted, and the average weight of 
these is a third of the gross weight. All the calculations 
I made did bear that proportion. 



70 M Y APINOI KINGD OM. 

So food to the amount of four hundred pounds is raised 
on six feet square of land in two years, or at an average 
of two hundred pounds of food a year; so I think we 
may safely say that the plantain-tree gives more food to 
the human race in proportion to space than any other 
plant. 

The natives eat the plantain green. It is then tasteless, 
and when coming out of the boiling pot it is very mellow 
and quite palatable when once accustomed to it. 

Nothing is more beautiful than a cluster of plantain- 
trees protected by the forest from the winds; the im- 
mense leaves, some of them over eight feet long, make 
a superb appearance. 

In despite of all this luxuriance, the negroes are at times 
straitened for food, for the plantains, unlike grain, do 
not keep long after being picked from the tree in that 
hot climate. In four or five days after they have been 
cut they begin to be too ripe to eat, and rot very soon 
after. So, if your plantation bears more than you want, 
you must give them away, for there is no market in that 
part of the world, no real starving people, no poor, for 
these people, though not Christians, never allow a stran- 
ger to be hungry. 

The land for a new plantation is cleared in the follow- 
ing manner : The trees of the forest are cut down in the 
dry season; then, after a while, fire is set to them, 
and afterward the young plantain-trees are transplanted 
in thePmidst of the numberless trunks and limbs of trees 
that the fire had not been able to destroy. 



CHAPTEE XL 

THE KENDO. — ITS SMALL SIZE. 1 KILL ONE. ASTONISH- 
MENT OF THE NATIVES. 

On my way back to Reman dji I saw a good many 
little squirrels in that great African forest ; but there is 
one little fellow so very small and tiny that I am sure it 
must be the smallest squirrel in the world. I must tell 
you something about it. The natives called it kendo. 
It was entirely a new species to me. Being so small, I 
called it Sciurus miriutus when I gave a description of 
it in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 
History for 1860, p. 366. I remember the first time I 
met a kendo I was with my great friend Querlaouen, 
just by a swamp, hidden and watching for wild ducks 
that were in the habit of coming to it every day. All 
at once I saw climbing along the trunk of a tree a little 
animal, which seemed so small that I had some doubt 
about my having seen any thing at all. I lost sight of 
it in a few seconds, then got sight of it again, but only 
for a second, as I hardly had my eye upon it when it 
vanished. Querlaouen saw it also, and told me it was a 
kendo. I immediately drew the heavy charge from one 
of the barrels of my gun and reloaded with the smallest 
kind of shot I had, and which was used by me to kill 
very small birds. 

At last I got sight again of a little kendo. He was 
gnawing a little bit of the bark of the tree, and was 



78 



MY APING I KINO DOM. 




THE SCIURUS MINUTUS, OR KENDO. 



standing still. It was the most graceful little tiny thing 
I had seen. Just as I raised my gun he moved away, 
but as quickly as possible I followed him in his move- 
ment, and as soon as I saw a good chance I fired, and 
the poor little thing tumbled down to the ground, to the 
utter amazement of friend Querlaouen, who was sure 
that I had a big monda (fetich) to be able to hit such a 
little thing. During my sojourn in Africa I killed sev- 
eral more of these little kendos, and brought their stuffed 
skins back, and as I know that you would like to see just 
how big the little animal is, there stands before you a 
picture of a full grown specimen. 



I DISMISS MY COOKS. 79 

I can not tell you the astonishment of Remandji when 
he saw I had been successful in killing the kendo. I 
was in his eye a much greater spirit than ever ; so, if 
Querlaouen was astonished, you must just fancy how 
much more amazed Remand ji was. 

The next day we got back to Remandji, where every 
demonstration of joy from the villagers welcomed us. I 
entered the village with a very large retinue of women 
as cooks, headed, of course, by my old housekeeper, who 
insisted on taking the lead and being first in every thing, 
because, as she said, she was the first that had been given 
to me. I gave to each of these poor creatures a few big 
beads, and then dismissed them, and they returned to 
their own villages feeling quite happy. 

Wandering the next morning in the forest with Okabi, 
I heard a very strange sound, and stopped to listen and 
find out what it was. 







^SMIMSm 



mmm 






CHAPTER XII. 



A HEED OF MONKEYS. HOW THEY TEAVEL IN THE FOEEST. 

WHITE-NOSED MONKEYS. THEIE GEEAT LEAPS. HOW 

THEY KEEP FOOD WHEN NOT HUNGRY. 

" Hark !" said I, " hark ! What is the noise I hear % 
It must come from a band of monkeys traveling in the 
forest from tree to" tree. It is no use to go to them," said 
I to Okabi ; " let us hide ourselves in the direction where 
the noise comes from, and if they come in a straight line 
they may pass over our heads, and we may then have a 
good shot at them." This was. hardly said before it was 
done. We hid ourselves under a thick little bush. The 
noise came nearer and nearer. Ho ! ho ! I thought, they 
are going to pass just over our heads. This was a great 
piece of good fortune. 

I hid myself the best way I could, squatting close to 
the ground, and sinking my neck into my shoulders as 
much as possible, and hardly dared to breathe, when, by 
jingo, I felt like sneezing ! It would have been nice 
work to sneeze just when the monkeys were close by, and 
to frighten them away, for the monkeys are shy here, 
being much hunted by the natives. Many and many 
hundreds of them have met their death by the arrows 
and traps of the skillful hunters. But here they come ! 
I see the branches at the top of the trees moving. There 



THEY SEEM TO FL Y IN THE AIR. &j_ 

must be at least fifteen or twenty monkeys, belonging to 
the white-nosed tribe, upon a journey. It was marvelous* 
to see them seize the branches and swing themselves, in 
order to leap farther, just like a man on a trapeze. As 
they came down to the extremity of the light branches, 
these would bend several feet under their weight. They 
would leap to another branch, seize one, and then to an- 
other, never stopping to rest. Sometimes they would 
run a few steps on some long and stout branch, and leap 
again. In some places where the trees were not very 
near together in the direction in which they wished to 
travel, they would take flying leaps of fifteen to twenty 
feet, straight through the air, from branch to branch, 
without stopping to measure the distance. I was so 
deeply interested in watching their movements that I 
quite forgot that I had a gun, and that I was hungry. 
One by one they passed on, flying along like as if they 
had wings, or by magic, reaching the branch they aimed 
at with unerring certainty. Not one of them made a 
mistake ; not one of them fell short of the branch he 
was after. In this manner monkeys journey for miles 
through the woods. Sometimes they make tremendous 
jumps from the upper boughs of high trees down to 
lower ones. I do not exaggerate at all when I say that 
sometimes I have surprised monkeys on high trees, and, 
after firing at them, I have seen them fall, apparently 
taking no heed, to a distance of thirty, forty, and perhaps 
fifty feet below, and disappear in the twinkling of an 
eye. ' Unless the monkeys shriek, there is no way to dis- 
cover that they are about in the woods except by the 
noise occasioned by their tremendous leaps when on a 
journey, which sounds very strangely in the -silence of 

D 2 



82 MY APINOI KINGD OM. 

these equatorial forests. On they go, leap after leap, for 
hours without resting. At other times, when they aie 
only on a feeding excursion, and have reached a place 
where berries are abundant on the trees, they take it easy, 
and make their leaps slowly as they go along. It is by 
this noise chiefly that the hunters are guided when on 
the look-out for them. When there are many of them 
together they are difficult to approach, as they always 
have a sentinel on the watch, and at the least noise they 
decamp as fast as they can go ; but when only two, three, 
or four of them are together, they are easier to approach, 
especially if they are hungry. 

The white-nosed monkey, the ndova, and the white- 
mustached monkey, the " miengai," are tremendous leap- 
ers in those forests. I doubt very much whether the 
nkago ( :i cercocebus") is quite as good a leaper as the two 
others. They attain all of them to a very large size in 
the wild state, and a good many must weigh more than 
thirty or forty-five pounds. The enormous canines the 
big ones possess show what they can do in the way of 
biting. 

I think that to see one of these flocks of monkeys on 
the march is one of the most interesting sights that ever 
gladdened my eyes in the great jungles of Africa. It is 
certainly a wonderful spectacle, for they seem to con- 
tinue their flight without cessation, and without heeding 
what is before them. Their sight is so quick and keen, 
and their motion so rapid, that, on this occasion, I was 
unable to get within shot of them again after coming to 
my wits. It was a pleasure to watch them. So expert 
are they in their motions that they can stop at will, tak- 
ing a firm 'grasp of the branch with the hind feet. The 



CURIOUS WAY OF KEEPING FOOD. §5 

fore feet are only used in leaps to catch the branches 
toward which they spring. 

Each of these three species of monkey has a very pe- 
culiar and distinct voice, the nkago having the most pow- 
erful. How often I have heard them, I should think 
almost a mile off, either calling for their absent mate, or, 
like other wild beasts, doing it merely for the pleasure 
of trying the strength of their lungs. 

The cercopitheci and the cercocebi have very large 
pouches, which possess great power of distension, and 
they use them as store-houses, where they keep their nuts 
and berries when not hungry. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

ELEPHANT HUNTING. TAKE REFUGE ON A TREE. FIRE 

TWICE AT THE ELEPHANT. HOW HE KICKED ! AN IM- 
MENSE PYTHON. HE KILLS ONE OF OUR DOGS. OKABI 

KILLS THE SNAKE. 

I hear that elephants are plentiful, and their heavy 
footprints are seen in a great many places in the forest. 
Antelopes and wild boars are also plentiful. I must 
have a peep at the elephants. I must go after them in 
the forest. I must kill one. "Now is the time, for I 
know that a herd is in the forest, and, to judge by the 
natives pointing to the height of the sun to show the time 
we should find them if we start early in the morning at 
sunrise, I suppose that they must be about a four hours' 
walk from the village. 

I have taken my best rifle ; I have loaded it with steel- 
pointed bullets ; I give to each of the two Apingi who 
are to accompany me a spare gun to carry, take food 
for the day, and we start. 

After a while w r e came to fresh footprints, which evi- 
dently had been made where we were the day before ; we 
followed their tracks. It was easy, for there must have 
been a herd of ten or twelve together. Oh how I wished 
I had one of my Bakalai friends with me, as we might 
have killed several elephants. We continued to follow 
the tracks, being careful, from time to time, to break a 



I REMEMBER Q UERLA UEJS\ § 7 

bough of a young tree, and drop on the ground a hand- 
ful of green twigs, so as to make sure that we could 
find the way back again. 

At last I thought I heard a noise, and gave a kind of 
cluck to stop my two Apingi friends, and raised my 
finger to my mouth to insure silence. There was no 
mistake. I could hear a booming sound, as if it was 
the heavy trampling of elephants. We advanced care- 
fully. I could feel my heart beating violently, and I 
could almost hear its pulsations. These African ele- 
phants are ugly customers. The nimblest and coolest 
hunter is sometimes caught by them. Had not my splen- 
did friend Querlaouen been killed by an elephant ? Poor 
fellow ! I had been thinking of him these last two hours. 
I often think of him. I thought also of friend Aboko, 
and wondered where he was. Perhaps he has been sold, 
said I to myself, or he may have been killed for witch- 
craft. Some of you may perhaps remember that Aboko 
was a great elephant hunter. 

Such were my thoughts as I advanced into the jungle 
to meet the elephants. How lightly I stepped on the 
ground, for fear of making a noise and alarming the 
huge beasts ! 

I must remain still, for I discover that the elephants 
are retracing their steps; they are coming back by the 
same road. What does this mean ? They are certainly 
unaware of our being so close to them. My friends the 
Apingi begin to show fear, and make me a sign that 
they are going to ascend a tree. They had hardly made 
the sign than they had climbed a pretty large tree, get- 
ting up among the lianes which hung from its branches. 
They were about twenty feet from the ground, resting 



g 8 MY APING I XING I) OM. 

on a heavy limb, and looked in the direction where we 
heard the noise. 

Looking round, I saw close to them a nice tree, with a 
very thick trunk, just near the path the elephants had 
made by trampling the young saplings down. How 
to get up? Suddenly I saw a heavy liane, or creeper, 
hanging down from one of its branches. I slung my 
gun on my shoulder, seized the liane, and soon found 
myself some twenty feet up, between two immense limbs 
which diverged from the trunk. I stood between them, 
resting my back on one of the limbs. I was just in a 
right position if the elephants were to come back by the 
same path they had made. The noise becomes greater ; 
they break down young trees as they advance, to eat their 
leaves. I hear their footsteps distinctly. They are com- 
ing by the same road. 

I keep a sharp look-out through the dense foliage. 
The young trees begin to move, and I know that the ele- 
phants are near. The bull is in sight. I count nine 
elephants. The bull suddenly stops, sniffs the air, and 
elevates his trunk. He has smelt danger, no doubt. Oh 
dear ! I can not aim well on account of being too high. 
I am sorry. I wish I had remained on the ground. 

I shoulder my rifle. I aim at the bull, wishing to shoot 
him through the ear. I take good aim — bang ! As ill 
luck would have it, just as I touched the trigger my foot 
slipped, and the bullet struck the elephant in the head, 
wounding him badly, but not killing him. He imme- 
diately charges on the tree, when suddenly he perceives 
my two Apingi friends, and makes a rush for their tree, 
tearing down the vines which hang from it. I fire again, 
and the ball hits him on the hip. He gives a tremen- 



THE ELEPHANTS PLUNGE INTO THE FOREST. §9 

dons kick, raises his hind legs up, and plunges into the 
forest with fearful noise, tearing every tiling that op- 
posed him, and leaving tracks of blood behind. I was 
happy to see the last of him, as I did not feel at home 
on the tree. If I had been on the ground I would have 
probably killed him. The other elephants, when they 
heard the first gun, dashed into the forest at a fearful 
speed, demolishing every thing before them. When the 
Apiugi came down from their tree, they looked almost 
dead with fright. I was not satisfied with myself, for I 
wished I had " bagged" the elephant. 

I came down from my place of concealment, and for 
the remainder of the day went after the other elephants ; 
but they had fled far away, and I was at length obliged 
to give up the chase. We made our camp that night in 
the woods. I lighted a fire without trouble. We made 
a nice shelter with leaves, for we had rain almost every 
night ; and, surrounded by bright fires, we lay down to 
sleep. The leopards were prowling about, so we did not 
all dare to sleep at once. One must keep watch, and 
see that the fires were bright. We had no trouble in do- 
ing this, as we had collected a great quantity of fire- wood. 

The next morning we returned to Bemandji. My two 
Apingi told marvelous stories about my gun, and what a 
kicking the elephant made when, he received a bullet in 
his hind quarter. Every one laughed heartily, and some 
of the villagers prepared to go into the forest to hunt for 
the wounded elephant, for they say he has surely died. 
I should not wonder if he should be found dead some- 
where in the jungle in a few days. 

The following day I went hunting again. Okabi was 
my only companion. Okabi had taken with him four of 



9 MY APING I EINOD OM. 

his dogs, and we had great hopes of killing some wild 
boars. Suddenly the dogs, which were running in the 
forest, appeared excited, as if they were on the track of 
game, and the four were soon out of sight. Soon after- 
ward we heard them barking, which at last became less 
and less distinct, till the sound was entirely lost. " Yes," 
said I to Okabi, " there must be game in the forest ; what 
can it be ?" " I can not tell," said Okabi. I fully ex- 
pected to hear the barking of the dogs come once more 
toward us, for these dogs were so trained as to drive the 
game in the direction of the hunters. We were not mis- 
taken. A little after we heard the barking of the dogs, 
but once more it gradually grew fainter and fainter, and 
all became silent. Okabi shouted all the time in Apingi 
to the dogs to come back, so that they might know the 
direction in which we were. All continued silent. We 
waited for an hour; the same silence still prevailed, and 
we concluded that the game had been fleeter than the 
dogs, and had given them the slip. It might have been 
an antelope, and perhaps it had crossed some stream ; but 
then these native dogs are not afraid of water, and they 
would have gone in pursuit. Perhaps it might have been 
a chimpanzee. In fact, we did not know what game it 
was, and Okabi and I wished we knew. 

The dogs are at last coming back. We hear their 
footsteps in the jungle, and now one is in sight. But 
hark ! I hear a howl of pain from one of them, as if it 
had been seized by a wild beast. We are on the qui 
vive. I cock my gun. Who knows but that there may 
be a gorilla close by, or perhaps a fierce leopard has 
sprung upon the dog.^ It may be a wild beast with which 
I have never been acquainted. But never mind ; I am 



SNAKE COILED ROUND A DOG. 91 

ready ; my gun is loaded for big game. I look round. 
The three dogs bark, and I cautiously go in their direc- 
tion. What meets my eyes ? An immense python, that 
had been lying in wait by a little rivulet, coiled round a 
tree, no doubt waiting for some gazelle or other game 
to come and drink, had sprung and coiled itself round 
the poor dog, and was drawing itself tighter and tighter 
round his body. I rush forward with Okabi. The snake 
at the same time had seen us, and seemed, to all appear- 
ances, not to know what to do. I did not like to fire, lest 
I should kill the poor dog that was struggling in its 
folds. Okabi, taking the cutlass he had by his side, goes 
to the rescue, and cuts the body of the snake in two. 
The iron grip of his fold gives way, and the dog, appear- 
ing half dead, lies prostrate on the ground. It had been 
almost squeezed to death. The two parts of the body of 
the big python, or huge African boa, still quivered and 
wriggled almost as if it was still alive. One blow more 
from Okabi's cutlass, and one half is divided in two 
again, and with the butt-end of my gun I smash his 
head. 

We were too busy with the snake first to look after 
the dog ; but, after killing the reptile, we came to poof 
doggy. I took him to the border of the little rivulet, 
and sprinkled him with water, in order to see if we 
could not revive him. But all we did was of no avail. 
He had been squeezed too long (though but a short time) 
in the folds of the snake. In a second or two his eyes 
became dim, and after a few struggles of the limbs and 
gasps for breath, the poor dog died. Okabi was furious, 
for it was a trained dog. We took with us the snake, 
which measured fifteen feet in length. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SERIOUS THOUGHTS. SHALL I REMAIN TO BE THEIR KING ? — 

WILL THE APINGI FIGHT % 1 MUST RAISE A REVENUE. — 

PRODUCTS OF THE COUNTRY. 

I must begin to think seriously of what can be done 
for the improvement of my kingdom. Did the people 
really believe that I was to remain with them forever \ 
Of course they never dreamed that-I could die. I had 
not made up my mind how long I would remain, for I 
had a strong desire to go back to the sea-shore and return 
to New York. 

Then I thought how strange it would be if I staid with 
them till the end of my days ! If such was the case, said 
I to myself, I must establish communication with the 
sea-shore, first by means of the big river, and then by 
land. But the Rembo-Apingi (Rembo meaning the 
river) was a large stream, and numerous tribes were liv- 
ing on its banks. Some of them were very warlike, and 
there had never been communication from the Apingi to 
the mouth of the Fernand Yaz. From Remand ji's vil- 
lage to my settlement of Washington there was a great 
extent of # country to go through. There would be, no 
doubt, some tremendous fighting to be done, for I knew 
enough of the country to know that the right of way was 
not to be obtained easily, each tribe being jealous of the 
other. Would the Apingi be willing to fight, and con- 
quer or die ? In that case I must go once more to the 



WHA T MUST I DO? 93 

sea-coast, bring small cannon, quantities of guns, pistols, 
and every tiling required to make us formidable, so that 
we might be feared by all the tribes in case they should 
try to prevent us from having communication with the 
sea. Large canoes also must be made, capable of hold-, 
ing at least one hundred warriors, for I must have a pow- 
erful navy to navigate the river. The men must be 
taught how to use guns, how to fire, and, above all, not 
to shrink from danger. 

I began to see that I had a gigantic task before me. 
Of course I did not intend to be a king of savages. I 
wanted the people to advance in civilization. Schools 
must be established. The people must learn how to read 
and write. They must be taught by all means, so that 
in the course of time, from their own free will (for I be- 
lieve in liberty of conscience), they might destroy their 
idols, cast away their superstitions, and believe in God as 
the great Ruler of the universe. They must admit the 
good missionaries, whor could instruct them in his worship. 

Then, again, every country must have a revenue. How 
shall I raise taxes 1 I can not raise money, for it is un • 
known here, and silver and gold have never been seen 
by the people. What were the products of the country ? 
What could be got out of it % For no government can 
be carried on without a revenue of some kind. Palm- 
oil, India-rubber, ivory, ebony-wood, bar-wood, gum co- 
pal — these are the leading products of the country: 
great quantities of them could be had. A numerous 
fleet of canoes, constructed especially to carry goods, 
must be constructed. They must be very large, and 
strongly built. They could go down the river loaded 
with a few men in each, but they must be convoyed by 



94 MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

powerful war-canoes, that could defy and destroy any 
hostile canoe that might come out against them. 

Peace must reign along the borders of the river, from 
the Apingi country to its mouth. Laws must be strictly 
enforced and obeyed, and war between villages and tribes 
along the river must be forbidden, just as King Quengue- 
za has forbidden war on the Ovenga River, and the re- 
fractory people must be punished, and their villages burnt, 
so that they may learn that no laws can be broken with- 
out cost. In fact, peace must reign every where in the 
country, so that commerce may be thrifty and the peo- 
ple happy. 

These thoughts brought me back again to the question 
of a revenue. 

How many tons of ebony, pounds of ivory, tons of 
palm-oil, and pounds of India-rubber would have to be 
collected by the people, in order to raise, for the first 
year, $100,000? Say— 

10,000 lbs. of ivory, at $2 per lb $20,000 

200 tons of palm-oil, at $200 per ton .* 40,000 

1000 tons of ebony, at $100 per ton 100,000 

10 tons of wax, at $650 per ton 6,500 

100,000 lbs. of India-rubber, collected carefully, would be 

worth 20 cents per lb 20,000 

10 tons of gum copal, at $650 per ton 6,500 

I could easily collect $182,000. As for the bar- wood, 
it is too far away, except if collected near the sea-shore, 
for it is only worth about $25 per ton. No doubt the 
trade could be increased vastly in a short time with the 
interior of Africa. I put the amount of each product 
according to the amount of production, that is to say, in 
ratio. I have no doubt that in time the palm-oil would 



PR OB UCTIONS OF THE CO UNTB Y. 95 

become one of the leading products of the country. 
There are great quantities of pea-nuts in that region, and 
an immense amount of oil could be manufactured, if 
mills were established for that purpose. It is very easy 
of manufacture. The pea-nut yields an enormous quan- 
tity of oil — I think more than five eighths of its own 
weight. South from the Apingi, malachite and copper 
must be abundant, for they come to Loango from the in- 
terior. What a profitable branch of commerce this 
might be made ! In many parts of the mountains very 
rich iron ore is plentiful ; and, should.it in time become 
civilized, there will be no trouble in building railways. 
The forests furnish an inexhaustible supply of timber. 
A species of teak is found near the sea-shore. Saw-mills 
could be erected to make all this available in time. I 
am fully persuaded that one of these days — it may be a 
very long time yet — we will have to come to Africa for 
timber. Then there must be precious stones in those 
rocky and woody mountains ; and it is not improbable 
that gold may be found in sufficient abundance to pay 
well for mining. Unfortunately, no dependence could 
be placed on agricultural products, for no negro loves to 
cultivate the soil. 

The social system, also, must be entirely reformed in 
this part of the world before agriculture can flourish. 
Men must be taught to cultivate the soil themselves in- 
stead of leaving it to their wives. You have seen, in 
reading the previous books of this series, that men do 
not work. Not one of them would like to go and culti- 
vate the soil. They think it is beneath their dignity, 
and that it is for women only to handle the spade and 
hoe 



9 6 MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

You have seen that all the products I have spoken of, 
as furnishing means to raise a revenue, are native pro- 
ducts. The one exception is the pea - nut, which, how- 
ever, grows there, when planted, with great luxuriance. 

I must also teach the natives to plant rice, so that they 
may have food that will keep. They never had seen rice 
before I came to their country, though in some parts of 
Africa the natives plant and live upon it. I must also 
make them plant Indian corn, as this is also food that 
will keep. I must tell you that Indian corn is often 
found among the tribes near the Coast, but the plant is 
gradually finding its way into the interior. 

I thought I would let some time pass away before I 
made up my mind what I should do. If I conclude to 
remain to be their king, I must go home and get a wife. 
A smile came over me at that very thought, for it was the 
first time I had thought of the subject in my life. What 
a tremendous excitement there would be if I ever came 
to the Apingi country with a wife, especially if she had 
blue eyes, and long fair or flaxen hair hanging down over 
her shoulders ! I am sure I would set the Apingi people 
crazy. They would certainly fall down and worship her 
as a beautiful and unknown spirit that had risen out of 
some- clear and limpid stream which meanders through 
the forest. 




CHAPTER XV. 



-TWO BABY GALAGOS. 



One afternoon, after thinking over all these things, 
I went all alone into the forest, for I was tired of the 
noise of the people, and wanted to reflect seriously upon 
my future movements. Suddenly, while walking slowly 
along, I came to the foot of a tree, which at once at- 
tracted my attention, so that I stopped to examine it. It 
was old, not very tall, but thick in the trunk, and full of 
knots. A great many dead branches of other trees had 
fallen upon it, and these were so thick that they prevented 
the light from penetrating below. It is upon such trees 
and in their hollows that night-animals generally retire 
for the day, for it is almost dark as night in its thick re- 
cesses. So, thinking that perhaps I should find some new 
species of night-animal hidden in such a collection of 
dead and broken limbs, I stooped, and tried to peer into 
that dense and tangled mass. First I tried to see if there 
were any snakes hidden there, for snakes are fond of such 
places. Not a snake could be seen ; but then some of 
them are not discovered so easily, for they are of the 
same color as the dead branches, and among those which 
have this color there are some very venomous species. 
Nor could I discover any traces of wild cats. 

Suddenly it struck me that just where the branches 
parted from the main trunk the bark seemed somewhat 
more shining, as if some little wild animal was in the 

E 



9 8 MT APING I KINOD OM. 

habit of climbing every day to the same spot. I looked 
carefully in that direction, but nothing was to be seen. 
There must be, certainly, a hole in the tree, I thought. 
Just by that tree hung a big creeper, as big as a large 
rope, strong enough to hold the mast of a ship, and by 
climbing it I could just go up and get to the top of the 
tree. I felt that I must ascend ; but, before doing it, I 
took again a sharp look, for I did not care at all to put 
my hand on a shining snake, or to have one drop down 
upon me. To make still more sure, I threw up a piece 
of wood into the thickest part of the branches. After 
waiting a little while, and seeing that nothing stirred, I 
prepared myself to ascend. My gun was bothering me. 
It seemed as if I could not possibly ascend with it ; even 
after strapping it on my shoulder, and yet I did not care 
to leave it at the foot of the tree, for in these forests you 
have to look out sharp, as you do not know when your 
enemies may be near. It is true, I had my revolvers on 
my side, and, after some hesitation, I concluded to try, 
any how. The distance was not more than ten feet, and 
the thick rope of creepers made the ascent tolerably easy. 
Before ascending, I looked all round to see that no 
savage was lurking near, and then began to climb up. 
It was rather hard work, after all, in despite of the sup- 
port the thick creeper afforded me. I could not make 
up my mind to leave my gun behind, and it annoyed 
me a great deal by getting entangled in the branches, 
and my revolvers hung heavily from my belt ; but I was 
bound to go up and see what was there. The hope of 
discovering some animal unknown to naturalists gave me 
strength to do things which in my ordinary moments I 
thought myself incapable of achieving. 



I TAKE CO TJBA GE. 9 9 

At last I reached the forked part of the tree, and 
found I was not mistaken. A hollow was there,- and by 
the appearance of the opening there was no doubt but 
that some little wild animal must make it its hiding-place. 

Now came the rub. The idea of putting my hand in- 
side of that dark hole was not very pleasant, for I did 
not know what kind of creature might be hiding there. 
Ko doubt it had four good canines which might go 
through my bauds as if they were paper. I confess I 
did not relish the thought. How was it that I did not 
think of this before I ascended the tree ? I was in a sad 
quandary, and did not know what to do. Now that I 
had reached the part of the tree where I wanted to be, 
after so much trouble, I did not care to go down and 
have taken the trouble for nothing; besides, who knew 
whether some pretty and unknown animal might not be 
hiding there 1 This last idea gave me courage, and I im- 
mediately sought in my head the best means either to 
capture or kill the animal. First I took from my belt 
one of my revolvers, and then looked down carefully into 
the hole to see if I could perceive the bottom of it, and 
thus discover what was there. Suddenly I perceived 
two big, bright red eyes, which seemed to send fire at 
me. It must be a galago, I thought. These little fellows 
have sharp little teeth, and can bite splendidly, and make 
you feel that they can hurt you. But I must try to cap- 
ture instead of killing it, and then try to tame it and 
study its habits. 

The hollow was only about fifteen inches deep. I was 
all alone, and I wished I had somebody with me, then 
we could have managed it more easily. 

T immediately put my foot on the opening of the lair 



100 MY APINGI EINOD OM. 

of the galago so that he could not escape, then taking 
from the inside of my hat two pocket-handkerchiefs 
which I used to protect my head from the heat of the sun 
when I was under its rays, I put them round my hand, 
so that when I tied the little fellow fast his teeth would 
not go through. 

Not far from me there was a little branch from which 
I could cut a nice little forked stick. Taking the big 
hunting-knife that hung in my belt, I cut the branch. 
It was just the thing I wanted. If I could put the fork 
on its neck, then I could with the other hand manage 
more safely the taking of the little fellow out of his lair, 
for no doubt he would make a desperate struggle. 

So I took off my foot from the opening, and down 
went my forked stick ; the little fellow whisked about in a 
lively manner, but soon he was caught, and began to cut 
up such capers with his hind legs, and tried so hard to 
get away, that I did not know if I should ever be able to 
handle it. But, putting my other arm down into the 
hole, I took a firm grip of the fellow by the neck, and I 
can assure you that I held him hard, for 1 had not much 
confidence in the wrapping of my hand, and I was dread- 
fully afraid I would get a bite from the little rascal, and 
be obliged to let go my hold. I got it safely out at last, 
though it made efforts to get away, and seized both of 
my shirt-sleeves with its little paws. But I held it firm- 
ly, and then perceived it was a female, and that she had 
young ones. Immediately I opened the bag where I 
kept my bullets, and in it I put the galago, and shut it 
again. Then once more I put in my hand, and soon 
brought up two very tiny little fellows. They were very 
pretty, with their soft, beautiful fur ; but I was a little 



DEA TIT OF THE YO UNO GALA GOS. \ Q ]_ 

sorry they were so very young, as they would be harder 
to raise. 

I descended the tree, delighted with my day's work, 
and started at once for the village with my capture. 
On arriving at home I immediately fixed a kind of cage, 
and put the galago and her young in it. This was mere- 
ly a temporary arrangement, and my first care was to 
construct a permanent home for my new pets. Mean- 
while I kept them in a box. Their house was quite 
ready for them the next day, and they seemed quite 
pleased with the change. I wanted "especially to take 
great care of the little ones, in the hopes of taming them. 
But three days after their capture they died. The poor 
mother seemed very forlorn and lonely afterward. How 
forlorn her mate must have been when, on his return to 
the tree, he found his home deserted ! He must have 
wandered all that night in search of her and of his young 
ones, or perhaps he knew at once that some perfidious 
enemy had despoiled his house. 

Now all my hopes rested on the old one. For the 
first few days she would only eat at night, and her food 
was chiefly ripe plantains and bananas, and a few berries 
from the forest. Afterward phe began to eat in the day- 
time, and would even take food from my hands. She 
was particularly fond of bananas. Then I made a little 
collar and pot it round her neck, and tied her by a long 
string near my bed. She would keep awake the whole 
night, and make a desperate war on the roaches and oth- 
er insects. The broad daylight seemed to hurt her eyes, 
and she would shut them up ; but at night was quite an- 
other animal, and much more lively. One evening, by a 
very dim light, I watched her, and saw how quickly she 



102 



MY APINQI KINGDOM. 



would seize the roaches. She was so light-footed that 
she could not be heard. 

Now I must give you a description of the galago. I 
must tell you that the animal possesses one of the soft- 
est furs I know. The natives use its skin to keep their 
powdered fetiches in. Its face is full of expression, the 
eyes being very large for the little head ; the ears are al- 
most transparent, the skin being very thin, stand upright, 
and are large for the size of the head. The eyes shine 
brightly, and during the day have a reddish appearance. 
Like all night-animals, they can see much better in the 
dark than in the daytime. The tail is somewhat bushy. 






W 



'4# 







The picture of a galago 
will give you an excellent 
idea of what the animal is 
like. A large specimen is 
of the size of a little puny 
cat. 

The galago being a noc- 
turnal animal, as soon as 



THE GALAGO. 



THE OLD GAL AGO SKEDADDLES. 



103 



darkness makes its appearance, it prepares itself to go 
out of its lair in search of food. It loves to feed upon 
insects, such, as cockroaches, etc. ; but, besides insects, it 
feeds on the fruits, berries, and nuts of the forest. Long 
before daylight it retires to its lair, and remains there 
during the whole day. It climbs about on trees- from 
branch to branch like a monkey, and uses its fore feet 
like hands, as the monkey does, only it is far from being 
as agile as a monkey. 

One fine morning I looked for the little galago, but 
she was not to be found. The string that held her had 
broken during the night, and she had skedaddled for 
parts unknown in the forest. I have often thought that 
if the galagos have a language of their own, my prison- 
er will have strange tales to tell of her captivity, and the 
only thing I could do after her flight was to wish that 
she might be happy once more in the woods, and that 
she might find her mate again. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

JACK, THE MONKEY. HUNTING MONKEYS WITH DOGS. 

GREAT FIGHT BETWEEN TWO DOGS AND A NKAGO. CAP- 
TURE OF A YOUNG NKAGO. 1 GIVE HIM THE NAME 05 

JACK. 

"While in the Apingi country, I had a queer little 
friend of which you have not heard yet. That friend 
was a little monkey which I had captured some time 
ago. It went by the name of Jack ; or sometimes was 
called Jack Nkago, on account of his species being called 
Nkago by the natives. Jack was a dear little fellow, be- 
longing to a family of monkeys called commonly by our- 
selves Mangabey, and, as he has been traveling with me 
for a long while, it has occurred to me that you would 
like to hear about him — how I captured him, how I 
raised him, and how I made a kind of civilized boy of 
him. Now let me tell you that Jack was a great friend 
of mine, and wherever I traveled he traveled also. 

I must relate to you my first acquaintance with young 
Jack. One day that I felt very hungry while in the 
Apingi country, I started for a hunt in the woods, and I 
thought how nice it would be if I could kill a monkey. 
I had taken with me friend Okabi, with whom you are 
so well acquainted, and who is a good hunter ; and, as 
we left the village, I said to Okabi, " I hope that we 
shall be able to kill a monkey." He replied at once, 



A TTA GK OF THE D OS. 105 

without any hesitation, " We shall be able to do so."- 
" How do you know ?" said I. " My monda (fetich) told 
me so," was his immediate answer. 

Okabi took two of his queer little native hunting dogs 
with him, for it was a time of the year when monkeys 
frequently come down from the trees to pick up nuts and 
eat some kind of berries which, when ripe, fall on the 
ground. At first I was averse to taking the dogs with 
us, but they had been so well trained by friend Okabi in 
hunting dodges that I consented. One of these dogs 
was called, I remember, Agounga, and the other Tpay. 
Both of them were of rusty color, and had, like the rest 
of the breed that is found in that part of Africa, straight 
ears, a somewhat long muzzle, and when once on the 
hunting-path chasing game, were very swift in their 
movements. They were about three years of age, rather 
fierce, and afraid of hardly any thing excepting leopards. 
They would bark at a gorilla, but take good care to keep 
at a safe distance. These two dogs were always the first 
to attack the game, and, among their other exploits, had 
captured a young chimpanzee, several young wild boars, 
and a good many monkeys ; Agounga showing, by several 
big scars, that the monkeys had often dealt badly with 
him, and that it required a good deal of pluck on his 
part to conquer, while Ipay's upper lip was on the side 
divided in two, showing what a tremendous bite an enor- 
mous monkey, of which he had got hold, gave him. Be- 
sides those two dogs, friend Okabi had four more, which, 
though not quite so cunning, were splendid hunting-dogs. 
They were descended from a family of dogs which had 
been for a long time celebrated as good hunters. 

I can assure you that Agounga and Ipay were good 
E2 



106 MY APING I KINOD OM. 

watch-dogs. !N"o one could come on Okabi's plantation 
without their barking and raising " the Old Harry." It 
was a long time before I could accustom them to be 
friends with me, and I concluded that they could not 
bear the sight of a white man, as is often the case with 
dogs accustomed to African masters. I suppose that 
our American dogs that have never seen a black man 
would feel exactly the same in a reversed case. But 
after a good deal of patience, and plenty of meat and 
" good old bones" given to them by myself, I tamed 
them, and I was glad of it, for I did not care to have 
these dogs always after me when I made my appearance 
in Okabi's plantation, as I was always in dread that they 
would come and take a small piece of the calf of my 
leg. They are sly as can be, but, happily, mad dogs are 
entirely unknown in this part of the world, and I wonder 
sometimes if the introduction of our dogs will bring the 
dreadful disease of hydrophobia with it. 

Now that I have given you an account of the dogs 
Agounga and Ipay, just follow me into the forest, and 
fancy that you can see us. Okabi was walking ahead 
in the hunting path with his gun in hand, and I was 
closely following him. The dogs were ahead of him 
about two or three yards. We had gone this way about 
two hours, when suddenly Okabi stopped, made a sign to 
the dogs to lie still, and then we listened attentively. 
Okabi's quick ear had detected a strange noise in the 
woods. I heard it also. The noise came incontestably 
from monkeys walking on the ground, for we could hear 
a rustling noise among the dead leaves as they moved 
amongst them and scattered them, to get the berries or 
nuts that had fallen underneath. There was no mistake. 



THE BOOS ABE BADE Y WO TINBEB. \ Q 1 

The dogs were ordered silently to go forward, and it wa& 
time that they should do so, for they were almost ready 
to bark. They also had heard the noise, and were " eager 
for the fray." They started as if the fire was after them 
in the direction of the noise, and were so light and quick 
in their movements that they scarcely produced any 
sound as they pursued the game swiftly through the jun- 
gle, which was in a part of the forest where the under- 
brush was not very thick. The tall trees above our heads 
were splendid. 

By-and-by we heard the dogs bark, and then the sounds 
of fighting with the monkeys, and their screams of pain 
as the dogs bit them ; so we rush as fast as we can to- 
ward the scene of action. Ipay and Agounga had got 
hold of a big nkago, as big as one of themselves. Its 
mouth was armed with four large, sharp-pointed, and 
dangerous-looking canities, which had already inflicted 
some fearful bites on the dogs, covering them with blood. 
The fight must have been desperate before we came up, 
to judge from the condition of the dogs, and it was far 
from being finished. As we made our appearance, Ipay 
was holding the monkey by the back of its neck, while 
Agounga held it firmly by the back above its tail. The 
monkey made a desperate effort, and with one of its 
strong paws seized a leg of Ipay, which it put into its 
mouth and gave a fearful bite. A scream of pain came 
from Ipay, and he let his grip go. This, instead of 
frightening the dog, made him more furious than ever, 
and, like a tiger, he seized the monkey again, but not be- 
fore it had given him another awful bite on the neck, 
which Ipay did not seem to mind. A great struggle 
ensued. The nkago disengaged itself once more, and 



108 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

again Agounga seized it by the neck and shook it as hard 
as he could. The monkey was losing his breath, for h6 
had fought so hard, and the dogs were in the same con- 
dition. I wish yon could have heard the noise — the nka- 
go's cries and moans, the dogs' snarls and growlings, 
and our cries of encouragement. It was an exciting 
scene ; and the racket, as it resounded through the for- 
est, was almost deafening. The dogs were perfectly in- 
furiated, and acted as if bound, provided they could not 
kill the monkey, not to let him go till we came to their 
assistance. They would have rather been cut to pieces 
by the powerful canines of the nkago than do that. 

The fight was desperate. The dogs had tasted blood, 
and had become ferocious. I expect that they were very 
glad to. see us come to the rescue, especially when Okabi, 
with a powerful blow of a dead branch of a tree he had 
found, hit, with a strong arm, the head of the poor nkago, 
and struck him senseless. Okabi then seized the nkago 
by the tail, and hurled its body with tremendous force 
twice against a tree, thereby killing it outright. The 
dogs, though covered with blood and badly wounded, 
were frantic, and acted as if they would like, if they 
could, to devour the monkey. Okabi allowed them to 
lick the unfortunate animal's blood. Poor dogs ! they 
were badly cut, and after the excitement was over they 
looked thoroughly exhausted. 

This nkago proved to be a large and old female, and I 
at once perceived that she must have had a young one 
with her. Suddenly I heard a little plaintive cry, and, 
raising my head from a surgical operation upon which I 
was engaged on Ipay's leg, I saw, on the top of a little 
tree not far off, " a child" nkago. He looked at us with 



CAPTURE OF A YOUNG MONKEY. 1Q9 

his frightened eyes, and we looked at him. He tried to 
go higher up the tree, but could not do so. 

" Hallo, Okabi !" I shouted, " let us capture this little 
fellow. I am sure it is the ' child' of the one we have 
killed." The dogs once more became infuriated. Agoun- 
ga and Ipay barked with anger, and jumped up at the 
tree as high as they could, evidently forgetting their 
wounds. Their eyes were glistening; and woe to the 
little fellow if he fall on the ground, for I was sure he 
would be strangled by the dogs before we could have 
time to rescue him. The more we told the dogs to keep 
still, the louder they barked, and the more fierce they 
seemed to be. At last Okabi cut the branch of a tree 
for a whip, and, threatening to give them a sound thrash- 
ing with it, drove them a little way off by the flourish 
of his menacing weapon. 

The little fellow was so small that it was with great 
difficulty he could move from one branch to another. 
Eeing of much less weight than friend Okabi, I ascended 
the tree, which could, however, hardly bear even my 
weight, and then came the tug. The diminutive animal 
was perfectly frightened ; fright gave him strength, and 
he moved quickly from branch to branch. At last I suc- 
ceeded in getting hold of the end of his tail. He gave 
a shriek, but I was determined not to let him go, and, 
gradually dragging him toward me, I gave him a grip 
on the neck with the left hand, and held him firmly. He 
tried to bite, but it was of no use. 

How nice the little baby monkey we had captured 
was ! He was a dear little fellow ; and, after thinking 
for a while, I said to Okabi, " Let us call him Jack? 
So our new friend afterward was always called " Jack? 



HO MY APING I KINOD OM. 

For a while I looked at this queer little creature. He 
had a bluish-black face, and his little ears looked won- 
derfully in shape like the ears of a human being. His 
lips were small, and when he opened his miniature 
mouth he showed a few half -grown teeth. His long, lit- 
tle hands were so queer ! his fingers were slender, and 
his nails looked wonderfully like human nails. His eyes 
appeared somewhat dark. His body, with the exception 
of his face, and the palms of his hands and feet, was cov- 
ered with hair, and his fingers had short hair between 
the joints. He had, like his mother, a crown of brown 
or maroon hair on the top of his head, while the eyelids 
had a white hue, which gave him a singular appearance. 
I wondered why, after all, some monkeys looked so much 
like human beings. 

We took him home, and, after a few hours, he seemed 
less frightened. I was very glad it so happened at the 
time that there was a goat with me that had a kid, so 
poor little Jack was sure to have some milk to feed upon, 
and I wondered if the goat would not adopt Jack also 
for her own. That same day I tried to make Jack suck 
the goat, but could not succeed, the goat making too much 
fuss about allowing the little nkago to have the rights of 
an offspring. When she saw him she would raise her- 
self on her hind legs, and butt against the little fellow, 
and would have no doubt killed Jack if I had not taken 
care of him. 

For a few days I gave little Jack milk, and he began 
to know me well, and to get very tame. I fetched soft 
little berries every morning for him, and how glad he 
was when he saw me coming with them ! After a week 
he did not care to taste milk at all. Water and berries 
were his only food. 



JA CK AND I BECOME FRIENDS. \\\ 

Jack grew bigger and bigger every day, and at last 
came to be a strong monkey. I know that you will like 
to hear a great deal about Jack, how he grew up, and 
what he did. 

Jack and I became great friends. He would go with 
me in my rambles, and I can not tell you how useful he 
was sometimes to me. I remember once I was in the 
woods without food and very hungry. As I walked I 
saw a tree loaded with a bright kind of red fruit, and I 
wondered if it were good to eat. Jack was following 
me, and I gave him some of the berries, which he imme- 
diately devoured. ISTow I must tell you that monkeys 
are said never to make a mistake in their food, and that 
they never injure themselves by eating poisonous fruit. 
What was good for Jack was, I thought, good for me. 
So I tasted the berries, and, finding them to be of a pret- 
ty good flavor, I ate heartily of them, without any fear of 
being poisoned. 

Jack used to like to be petted, and now and then would 
delight in a frolic with me. Sometimes you might have 
seen him on the top of my head busily engaged in tum- 
bling my hair; next he would be on my back pulling 
my clothes ; and then again he would come into my hut 
and run away with my shoes, and carry them outside, 
sometimes putting them where they could not be found 
excepting after a thorough search. 

He was full of mischief, and would break any thing 
that was in his way. It was of no use to lock up bottles, 
plates, or cups. He must have his nose in every thing, 
and put his fingers into every pie. One day I heard a 
great crash at Washington. It was in the pantry. Jack 
had succeeded in getting in there, and in pulling down 



112 



MY APING I KINGDOM. 




JACK PLAYING TRICKS. 



upon himself a pile of plates. After he had done this 
mischief he decamped, and did not make his appearance 
till the next morning, for he knew very well that he 
wonld get a flogging. There was a little grove of trees 
near Washington, and there he disappeared. When I 
went there to fetch him he dodged me, for Jack was a 
great dodger. 

Of course you will say, " How came Jack to be in your 
settlement at Washington ?" Jack Nkago was on his way 
to New York, and was waiting there for a vessel to take 
him. I know that you will be pleased when I tell you 
that Jack at last reached New York. There were no 
amounts of capers he did not carry on on the voyage. 
The galley, or kitchen, was the object of his special at- 
tention from morning to night, for he knew that there, 



J A CK NKA RE A ORES NEW YORE. \\% 

or round it, food was to be found. He would watch for 
the cook to get out, and then down the ropes Jack would 
go, seize something, and rush up again, the cook hard 
after him with a broomstick. Here, when out of the 
cook's way, he would make faces at him, give a bite or 
two at what he had stolen, and then grin once more at 
the cook, as if he would say, " I do not care for you ; you 
can not catch me ;" and then he would make more faces, 
and up to the very top of the mast he would go, stay 
there a little while, and then jump from one rope to an- 
other. He was a great friend of the sailors, and would 
be by them at their meals. He had no objection to tea 
and coffee well sweetened, to a piece of sea-bread, or a 
cracker. If he was not hungry, he had on each side of 
his mouth a pouch (a natural bag) where he could store 
his food till the time when he felt like eating again. 

These nkagos have big pouches, and find them very 
useful. Jack seemed to have an especially big one, 
which had an unlimited power of extension, to store his 
food in, for when I gave him something nice, and he 
was not hungry, he would store it away, and then eat it 
at leisure afterward. When the pouch was full it look- 
ed very queer. 

When Jack Nkago reached the port of New York, that 
city seemed to be quite a new sight to him, and very dif- 
ferent from the African villages he had been accustomed 
to ; and, when at first he was taken through the street, 
he was very much frightened. He did not know what 
to make out of the horses, but soon got over his terror. 
At last I gave Jack to a friend of mine who had some 
nice girls and boys, and Jack departed for his new home 
in Newark, New Jersey, and there, I assure you, he had a 



114 MY APINGI KINQD OM. 

glorious time. It was at my friend Mr. Kankin's, who 
had a big garden for him to play in, trees to frolic upon, 
and boys and girls to be his playmates. 

One day he got out into the street, and then upon the 
trees on the sidewalk, and it was a long time before friend 
William could coax him to come down. 

Jack Nkago, I am sorry to say, turned out to be a 
great thief, and I remember the last time I saw him in 
one of his depredatory expeditions. It was in my friend's 
garden, and he was just coming out of the kitchen, hold- 
ing a big tomato in his mouth, and two others which he 
carried in each hand. This was, of course, all he could 
possibly steal at once, as he could not take any more, and 
he had to walk off on his hind legs in an almost upright 
position, making for some quiet place where he could eat 
and hide his plunder in safety ; but when he heard my 
voice shouting to him " Jack Kkago, what are you doing V 
he dropped one of the tomatoes in a fright, and ran away 
to hide. 

Several years have passed since those events in Jack 
Nkago's life took place. Poor Jack is now no more. 
He is dead ; but I shall, for a long time to come, remem- 
ber him. 




CHAPTER XVH. 

THE WONDERFUL WHITE ANTS. THEIR DEPREDATIONS.— 

THEIR CURIOUS BUILDINGS. 1 DESTROY THEM. THE SOL- 
DIERS AND THE WORKERS. HOW THEY TAKE CARE OF 

THE WOUNDED AND YOUNG. 

You and I, young folks, have been traveling together 
for a long time in an almost impenetrable forest of Equa- 
torial Africa. We have seen many strange things of 
which we never dreamed before, and we have studied 
the habits of man, beast, and insect. At almost every 
step we take in that wild country we meet with new ob- 
jects to gladden our eyes and cheer us in our lonely hours ; 
and now I am to describe to you one of the most won- 
derful insects with which we had become acquainted 
during our wandering ; and what I am going to tell you 
is based upon days of observation, which were carefully 
noted in my journal. The study of the termites, or 
white ants, was most fascinating to me, and helped 
to spend very many pleasant hours, and I hope the de- 
scription of these wonderful creatures will be as interest- 
ing to you as they were to me. The only fear I have is 
that I shall not be able to describe the settlements and 
habits of these strange insects as well as I would like to 
do. I not only wish to amuse you, but I wish to instruct 
you. 

First let me tell you that there was nothing in that 
great country of Equatorial Africa that gave me more 



llg MY APING I KINGD OM. 

trouble than these white ants. They were the silent 
enemies of which I was always afraid. I was in con- 
stant dread of them. !Not that I was afraid that they 
would attack me, for they are very inoffensive to man 
personally ; but they are the greatest sneak-thieves that 
can be found in the world, and nothing but the most 
constant watching and care can keep your property out 
of their reach, and even with the greatest vigilance they 
still get the better of you sometimes, for their ways of 
getting at your things are so sly and so difficult of dis- 
covery that it is often impossible to find them out till it 
is too late. Frequently they came from under the ground, 
and the richest man in worldly goods may become a poor 
fellow before he knows it. I need not tell you that, as I 
had to travel with a great many goods of which these lit- 
tle sly robbers and destroyers were very fond, I had to be 
on the alert all the time, but in despite of all my watchful- 
ness they would now and then succeed in destroying my 
property. Many and many a time they got the best of me ; 
and, before I describe these wonderful little creatures to 
you, I must tell you how I made my first acquaintance 
with them. Of course, in the beginning of my arrival in 
Africa I was rather " a green horn." I did not know much, 
and I did not know how many sly and silent enemies I 
had to contend with ; so do not be astonished at my mis- 
haps. The first time I discovered that these white ants 
had destroyed my property I did not feel in a very pleas- 
ant mood, especially as my stock of goods and clothing 
was rather low. 

One fine Sunday morning, which was, as at home, a 
day of rest for me, I thought I would dress up finely. 
I knew that I had a little pine chest where I kept some 



THE WHITE ANTS DESTB Y MY CL THES \\% 

very nice shirts that were still fresh with the iron and 
starch of home. These were, of course, only put on for 
great occasions, such as the Fourth of July, my birthday, 
or when I wanted to impress a king with my greatness. 
In that latter case I would let my shirt fall over my 
pantaloons, for the effect, in the eyes of these wild Afri- 
cans, was still more beautiful, and often I wanted to 
please them and not myself. 

I unlocked the chest and opened it. It was empty — 
there was no mistake about it. It was certainly the chest, 
and the contents that ought to have been in it were writ- 
ten on the lid. Only a few days before I had opened 
it and put in letters from dear friends, for it happened 
to be handy for me at the time. There could be no mis- 
take ; but the letters had also disappeared. 

A clear sweep had been made of all the contents of 
the chest. Not a single thing had been left in it ! 

Could the people have dared to rob me ? No ! Be- 
sides, the chest was locked. 

Shirts, cotton pantaloons, cotton socks — every thing 
gone. I could not understand the mystery at first. I 
was puzzled, and am sure you would have been puzzled 
also. When, suddenly, looking carefully at the chest, I 
saw streaks in the wood at the bottom that looked queer, 
and which had an appearance as though the wood had 
been eaten up in many places ; and, besides, the boards 
of the chest were full of little black spots. When I saw 
at the bottom the buttons which had been on my panta- 
loons and shirts, the mystery became greater. I got hold 
of the chest, and as I raised it I saw that it had been 
perforated in many places ; the bottom was almost eaten 
up outside, and nothing but a mere shell was left of the 



118 MY APING I EINGD OM. 

plank which was the bottom of the chest. The mystery 
began to get clearer to my mind when a native entered 
my hut, and, as he saw me, in complete bewilderment, 
still looking at the chest, he shouted, " The nchellellay 
have eaten your things." 

The nchellellay were white ants. 

I tell you I did not like it at all to have all my fine 
things eaten by the white ants. I wished they had been 
all at the bottom of the sea. Good-by to my fine cloth- 
ing and my good show before the kings. 

They had come from their subterranean abode right 
under the chest, eaten the wood at the bottom, entered 
through the crevices they had made, and then devoured 
every thing. Two or three days were more than suffi- 
cient for them to commit the havoc. In fact, they are, 
in many districts, the pest of the country, and it is a good 
thing the natives have no clothing to take care of. 

The incident I have just related was my first acquaint- 
ance with the termites, or white ants ; but, believe me, it 
was not the last, and I have had my things destroyed by 
them many and many times since. 

Kow I must describe the white ants to you. There 
are several species of termites in the equatorial regions 
of Africa, each building a different kind of structure, 
which form most conspicuous objects in the regions I 
have explored. These ants are of wonderful diversity, 
both in the form of the body and head, and in their ar- 
chitectural tastes and the manner they build their shel- 
ter ; but all have a common affinity in their intense dis- 
like to light, and consequently their working at their 
building during the night. 

All the termites are miners, and they live in vast colo- 



THE SPECIES OF WHITE ANTS. H9 

nies or settlements, which I will endeavor to describe to 
you. The "termes bellicosus" form buildings which 
sometimes reach the height of fifteen and twenty feet, 
and even higher. Just think of the amount of patience 
and perseverance it requires. How well built these settle- 
ments must be, for, when constructed, they last for years 

The size of the termes bellicosus is about half an inch 
or a little more. So, for the sake of comparison, let us 
for a moment calculate what sized building they would 
make if they were of the same proportions as man. 
These buildings would be more than a mile in height ! 
Would not that be wonderful % 

I have studied the habits of four species of termites, 
of which I am going to give you an account. These 
were the mushroom-hived termites, the tree termites, the 
bark termites, and the forest termites. The latter is a 
species of termes bellicosus. 

JSTow I will commence with the mushroom-hived ants. 

This species forms the most picturesque building, and 
in some districts they are found by thousands and tens 
of thousands together, for the most part on the open 
prairies which I met during my explorations. I remem- 
ber well the grandest sight I saw of the mushroom build- 
ing. I had just emerged from the great forest into an 
open prairie, situated in a country called Otando, which 
is about eighty miles south of the equator, when, lo ! 
what do I see ? All over the country an immense num- 
ber of objects, which appear to me, in the far distance, 
like gigantic mushrooms. These are scattered by thou- 
sands and thousands, and are built by what I have call- 
ed the Mushroom-hived Termes. On the following page 
you may see an engraving of these buildings. 



120 



MY APINGI KIlsGD DM. 




MUSHROOM-HIVED TERMES AND TREE TERMITJiS. 



They have exactly the shape of a gigantic mushroom, 
the top of which is from twelve to eighteen inches in di- 
ameter, and the column about five inches; the total 
height is from ten to fifteen or eighteen inches. 

After the grass has been burnt the country presents a 
most extraordinary appearance. In some places these 
hives are met with at almost every step. There are not 
two exactly of the same proportions as they appear at a 
distance, and, when you come close to them, their differ- 
ence in roundness, or sharpness of their summits, or in 
the thickness of the column is manifested. Not only do 
they differ in shape, but some are very much larger than 
others, as you may see by the engraving before you. 



MATERIAL OF THE BUILDINGS. 121 

Some of them have three roofs, connected with each 
other by a column, the top roof being the smallest. See ! 
and you may judge how strange such a sight was to me. 

This Otando prairie might have been taken for a big 
country of the termites, and the buildings might have 
been called the cities and the villages. Now and then 
a few buildings, very close together, formed a cluster 
which might have been called a settlement ; and, indeed, 
I have not made my mind up that these settlements, or 
clusters, do not communicate with each other. 

Many a time I have wished that I could understand 
the white ants, and wondered if they had a language of 
their own, for such intelligence as you will see by the 
description I am going to give you I never met with be- 
fore among the beasts and the insects I had studied. 

After a few days of wonder in that far off Otando 
prairie, I made up my mind not to leave the country till 
at least I could learn as far as possible the mysterious 
ways of the white ants ; and now let us go to work to- 
gether, and do you follow me in my work, and I am al- 
most sure, you will be interested, and perhaps you will 
fancy yourselves really to be with me. 

You will ask yourselves, Of what are these mushroom- 
hived buildings made ? They are built of a kind of mor- 
tar formed of the earth they eat, after it is digested in 
the stomachs of the ants, which, by contact with the air, 
becomes very hard, and able to resist for years the storms 
of rain and the powerful rays of the sun. The buildings 
erected by the different species of termes are constructed 
to protect them against the inclemencies of the weather, 
against their enemies, which are very numerous, and 
which include many predaceous kinds of fellow-ants, and 

F 



122 MY APING I KINQD 031. 

especially against daylight ; for the white ants can not 
bear daylight, and the rays of the hot sun kill them out- 
right, often in less than half a minute. 

Early one morning I left the strange village where I 
was, taking with me, besides my gun, an axe ; and so 
the people wondered what I was going to do, though none 
dared to follow me, as they were all afraid of me ; for, 
alas ! the plague had been in the country, and I was ac- 
cused of bringing death and desolation with me ; at least 
some believed it, while I am happy to say that many did 
not believe I was an evil spirit, who delighted in killing 
people that had shown me nothing but kindness. I re- 
member how sad I felt to think that any of these be- 
nighted people thought such things of me. 

I came soon to a cluster of these mushroom-hived 
buildings, and felled, with one blow of the axe, one of 
the structures, and I found that the base of the pillar 
rested only slightly on the ground, leaving a circular hol- 
low foundation, in the middle of which is a ball of earth 
full of cells, which enters the centre of the base of the pil- 
lar, and these lower cells are eagerly defended by a multi- 
tude of the soldier class of ants, which I took first to be 
males, all striving to bite the intruder with their pincer- 
like jaws. On breaking open the ball of which I have 
spoken to you, which, when handled, divided itself into 
three parts, I found them full of very young white ants in 
different stages of growth, and also of eggs. The young 
ones were of a milky- white color. 

I again set to work — one, two, three blows — and break 
and crush the upper part of the structure. 

What do I see ? Cells which, for the first time since 
they had been built, had seen daylight. There were a 



A STRANGE SCENE. 



123 



great number of them, all communicating with each 
other. The inhabitants of these dark abodes were in 
great dismay. To and fro they moved as if to say, What 
is the matter? what has happened? who has been bold 
enough to demolish our structures ? 

These inhabitants were queer looking. A great many 
of them had tumbled down with the ruins and debris, 
and among them were many young ones and a number 
of eggs. 

How eagerly I looked, and how strangely every thing 
appeared to me ! 
. I must give you a description of the inhabitants, and 
the engraving below will give you an idea of their 
shape. 

First, there were a great many full-grown individuals, 




IN THE OEJLLb — QUEEN, bOLDIERS, AND WORKERS. 



124 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

who were armed with tremendous long pincers or nip- 
pers, which could inflict very painful bites ; these I took 
to be males, but they were soldiers. You will see after- 
wards why they are called soldiers. 

There was another kind much shorter; they have not 
elongated nippers like the soldiers, but have very bulky 
abdomens, and appeared to all purpose inoffensive ; they 
were of a yellowish color, with a grayish tinge, on ac- 
count of the earth or mortar they had in their abdomen. 
These were the workers, and you will see by-and-by why 
they are called workers. 

These two apparently distinct species had tumbled 
down, with a great many young ones of different sizes 
— some so young that they could not walk — and a good 
many wounded by the breaking of the building. 

After looking at these for a short time, I examined the 
cells which I had partly demolished. These cells were 
elongated, and no two were exactly of the same shape. 
They were about one inch in length more or less, and a 
third of an inch broad, all the cells communicating with 
each other by a tunnel or corridor. 

Then I saw, at the opening of each cell that had been 
partly broken, soldiers who came from the inside to look 
on and see what was the matter. They only came to 
the light, and then retired. 

In the mean time a great scramble had taken place 
among the white ants that had been thrown out of the 
cells when I demolished the building ; and I shall never 
forget how astonished I was when I saw them suddenly 
wander through the scene of the battle-field, if I may use 
the expression, attending to their sick and wounded. 
They took no notice of those that were dangerously 



BRINGING IN THE WOUNDED. 125 

wounded, but carried away only those that were not be- 
yond hope. Of course the dead were left; and how 
careful they were to bring into the cells the wounded 
and young ones between their pincers ! I was perfectly 
amazed. Human beings coming out of a railway crash, 
or people surrounding houses that had tumbled down, 
could not have developed more intelligence. I wish you 
could have seen how careful the workers and soldiers 
were in looking for the wounded after the battle, in 
bringing in the wounded and the young ! 

They even brought in those that were too young to 
walk. The eggs were brought in also ; all were carried 
into the interior recess of unbroken cells, and there my 
sight ended. Oh, how I wished to see more ! 

This .transportation of the wounded, young ones, and 
eggs was but a short work. I could hardly believe my 
eyes, for so many had come to the rescue from the in- 
side, which added a great deal to the strength of those 
who were not wounded outside, and they all went right 
to work with as much system as if nothing had happen- 
ed. Of course I had missed a good deal that had taken 
place elsewhere by watching this operation. So I de- 
molished another shelter with my axe, and paid atten- 
tion to something else. First I demolished a small part 
of the building, and, as soon as the cells were broken, a 
few head men or chiefs were seen ; these were larger 
than the soldiers ; each one moved his head all round 
the aperture, and then disappeared into the dark gal- 
leries, apparently without depositing any thing, for I 
looked on closely with a powerful magnifying-glass, and 
I could see nothing. But certainly there must have 
been a reason for coming, only I could not find out. 



1 2 6 MY APING I KINQD OM. 

These very large white ants I suspected were really the 
males, but I could not be certain, as they had disappear- 
ed in their dark recess, where no human eye could fol- 
low them. The soldiers made their appearance, looked 
on, and kept still. Again, with the help of my powerful 
magnifying-glass, I could not see what they were doing. 
Then the workers came forward, and each of them turn- 
ed round and ejected from behind a quantity of liquid 
mud or earth into the aperture. This liquid hardened as 
it came in contact with the air, and each little load that 
was discharged was put carefully on the top of the oth- 
er in as business-like a way as human bricklayers would 
lay bricks in building or repairing a wall. Their 
work was managed with such precision that it would 
have done honor to the* best bricklayer .or stone-mason. 
I must own I was astounded. Though I had seen many 
ant-hills, I had never taken the trouble to know how 
they were made. The most strange thing was, that aft- 
er an ant had deposited its load, it with great rapidity 
disappeared inside, following a line of retreat, and an- 
other, with as much quickness, made its appearance, so 
that there was no loss of time. A load was put on the 
top of another certainly far more quickly than a mason 
would put a brick on the top of another in building a 
wall. They continued working, till finally the breach I 
had made in each cell was perfectly walled up. 

The question to my mind was to know if the same 
ants went away to eat more earth and came again. How 
much I would have given to see into the dark recess of 
the chambers ! but I do not see how this will ever be 
done. 

After a very short 'time, all the apertures or breaches 



CLOSING THE BREACH. 



127 



that I had made were closed, so they felt once more safe 
in their fortress from their enemies and from daylight. 

I had become so intensely interested in my observa- 
tions that I was covered with perspiration. I must con- 
fess I had, during my years of traveling, seen nothing 
more curious. 

The sun was going down very fast, so I returned back 
to the village, promising myself to study the white ants 
every day for some time to come. 




CHAPTEE XYIIL 

MOEE ABOUT WHITE ANTS. TWO SPECIES. TEEEIBLE FIGHT 

BETWEEN THEM. THE WORKERS AND THE SOLDIERS. 

THE QUEEN. SHE IS SURROUNDED BY SOLDIERS. OTHER 

SPECIES OF ANTS. 

After my return to the village the people began to 
look at me with perfect amazement and with great fear ; 
they almost appeared to regard it as something supernat- 
ural that I should demolish these white ants' buildings. 
" What does the Moguizi mean ?" said the Otando peo- 
ple. " If he did not mean something, he would not have 
gone and staid so long looking after these nchellellays." 
Poor people ! they could not understand why I did go, 
in despite of all the explanations I gave them. They 
could not comprehend that it was possible for a human 
being to care how the white ants built their shelters and 
what they did. 

So, early the next morning I started again. I took an 
axe with me as before, and very soon, if you had been 
close by, you would have seen me hard at work demol- 
ishing one of these ant-hills. It required several blows 
before I succeeded, for the material was hard, and diffi- 
cult to break. 

While I was busily but quietly demolishing and look- 
ing on at the cells and at the havoc I had made, and the 
great dismay I had put the ants to, I suddenly discov- 



A BATTLE AMONG THE WHITE ANTS. 129 

ered that there was another distinct species of white ant 
mixed up with the proper architects of the edifice. 

The fighting fellows, the soldiers of this other species, 
were much smaller and more slender, and somewhat of 
a darker color, and commenced a conflict with the other 
" soldiers," whom I described in the last chapter, with 
terrific rage. I could not make out how these fellows, 
who could fight with such fury, could live together in 
the same building. On close inspection, I found that 
these slender fellows came out of cells with a yellow 
earth, while the others inhabited cells of black earth like 
the structure. The yellow color was due to a coating of 
some foreign substance on the walls of the cells. The 
chambers inhabited by the slender species were smaller, 
and did not at all communicate with those occupied by 
the lords of the manor, but were inserted into the vacant 
spaces or partition walls between the other cells. They 
were smugglers, and had, no doubt, introduced them- 
selves after the buildings had been finished, from under 
the ground. Pretty smart fellows, I thought. 

What a fight ! A regular battle. JS T o enemies could 
fight with more fury, with more pluck and determina- 
tion. It was quite marvelous to see how the soldiers of 
the one kind seized the bodies of the others with their 
powerful pincer-jaws. The fight became general, and 
the larger kind showed no mercy to its less powerful en- 
emy. Here were two fellows squaring it — a powerful 
big soldier against a smaller one. The fight was short. 
The weaker kind was killed soon. The soft body or ab- 
domen seemed to be the vulnerable point. The soldiers 
of the smaller and slender kind possessed also long, pin- 
cer-like jaws, and these were powerful and formidable 

F2 



130 * IY APINQI KINGB OM. 

enemies of the workers of the larger kind, for, though 
much smaller in size, they had far more powerful and 
elongated pincers. 

Suddenly a worker of the larger kind seized a small 
worker in its last struggle for life, when one of these 
slender soldiers that was passing by ran to the rescue of 
its kindred in species, seized the larger kind with its 
pincers, and, snapping them into the abdomen of the 
assailant, twice its size, killed it instantly. The slender 
one then fell from the short pincers of the larger worker 
■who had been killed, but life was extinct. The rescuer 
examined the body, and, seeing that there was no life, 
left it on the battle-field instead of carrying it off, went 
away, and disappeared in search of more enemies to con- 
quer. In the combat, every where, there was nothing 
but fighting, and it was no child's play, for many and 
many lost their lives in the conflict ; it was a regular 
pitched battle, and I must say I was perfectly astonished 
at the bravery of these white ants. 

By this fight I discovered that the vulnerable point oi 
the termites is the abdomen; it is evident that their 
powerful pincer-jaws are made for wounding and pier- 
cing, while the structure of the workers show their short 
pincers are made for the purpose of labor, and that they 
are not great fighters. Nothing astonished me more in 
those deadly combats than their impetuous mode of at- 
tack. The weaker species knew the vulnerable point of 
his formidable enemy, who was frequently too busy fight- 
ing to know what was going on round it, and could not 
protect itself. 

A farther examination showed me that the mushroom- 
like cap of the whole edifice I had demolished was com- 



BUILDING MATERIAL OF THE WHITE ANTS. 133 

posed of both black and yellow cells. This curious mix- 
ture of two species, each building its own cells in the 
same establishment, astonished me. 

After this fight I went to see what had become of the 
buildings I had partly demolished the day before, and 
the operations of which had been closed at once by the 
white ants to keep the light out and enemies from get- 
ting in. My astonishment was great when I saw that 
they had, during the night, built the structures exactly 
as they were before I destroyed them. They continued 
to rebuild in the original shape, but during the daytime 
they only closed the cells. I noticed that now and then 
some of the workers brought in their pincers very large 
grains of sand or minute pebbles, and deposited them in 
the mud, and several of the cells I demolished were filled 
with these little pebbles. 

Strange to say, the termites called workers have noth- 
ing else to do but to work and work, while the soldiers, 
apparently, have nothing to do. Now I must look for a 
queen ant. But, before doing so, I must try to tell you 
how their building material is formed. The earth which 
they eat, and which they use in building, as I have told 
you before, is seen through the thin skins of their bodies. 
This mud is mixed with a gluey matter through the pow- 
er of digestion, and when it is ejected it gets hard, and 
with this material they construct all the buildings, tunnels, 
and walls which form their cells, showing a bright ex- 
ample, even to us all, of what time and perseverance can 
do. They achieve, mite by mite, the firm and solid 
structure of the entire hut, which stands against the 
storms for a good many years. Sun and rain are equally 
fatal to these white ants ; thus it is necessary that they 



1 34 MY APING I KIN OB OM. 

should build a hive impervious to light, heat, and rain. 
I have put white ants in the sun, and they were shortly 
afterward killed by its heat. I had often thought that 
each cell was perhaps inhabited only by one ant, but the 
great number I saw in each mushroom-like edifice makes 
it quite improbable that it should be so. Many cells are 
almost an inch in length, and about a third of an inch 
broad. 

There are several species of white ants, as I have told 
you ; some live in subterranean dwellings unseen by the 
eyes of man, and suddenly make their appearance 
through the floor of one's hut during the night, and de- 
vour all substances made of cotton or paper, for they are 
exceedingly fond of paper. They are very fond of eat- 
ing wood, and are often found in dead trees, the wood 
of which they gradually devour, leaving but the outside. 
They must also have a great sense of smell. 

One may retire to bed in fancied security, with no 
signs of white ants about, and in the morning wake up 
to find little covered ways overspreading the floor, and 
over the chest in which one's treasures are, and the con- 
tents of the chest partly or entirely destroyed. In a few 
days a store-house of goods would be spoiled. So the ut- 
most care has to be used in keeping away the white ants. 
I was fortunate that my settlement of Washington was 
situated on a sandy soil, for in such soil the white ants 
can not live, on account of not being able to eat sand; 
and, besides, their tunnels could not be made in such a 
soil. 

I was very anxious to find the queen — the head of the 
colony, the sovereign of the establishment. So I went 
to work, and was soon rewarded for my labor. I discov- 



THE QUEEN'S COURT. 135 

ered a queen, and the engraving shown at page 123 will 
give you an idea of the queer shape a white ant queen is. 
After demolishing the building carefully, piece by piece, 
at last I came to a large chamber several times larger 
than any other, in which I found the queen. She was 
surrounded by the soldiers, which seemed to keep guard 
over her majesty, while workers were in the act of carry- 
ing away the eggs which she had recently deposited. 
As soon as the cell where the queen was had been partly 
broken, the soldiers appeared perfectly infuriated, and 
opened and gnashed their powerful nippers. I placed a 
little piece of wood as if to touch the queen with it; 
they threw themselves upon it, and with their nippers 
seized it and bit it furiously. The queen seemed almost 
in a torpid state; she was over an inch and a half in 
length, and she was continually laying eggs, the workers' 
business being to take these eggs to different parts of the 
building. 

It was easy, at a single glance, to see that it had been 
utterly impossible for the queen to enter that chamber 
of the size she was. 

This will bring me to explain to you how a queen is 
made. 

Once a year a number of white ants in each colony, 
trained up from the eggs, come to maturity, acquire 
wings, and fly out of the hive or building on warm even- 
ings. These are males and females ; but very few escape, 
on account of the great number of their enemies, and 
those who do survive all dangers become the kings and 
queens of new hives. 

The sole parents of a colony are a single female or 
queen, and a slender insect called the king. Possibly 



136 MY APING 1 KIN OB OM. 

there may be several males, though this latter can never 
be seen in the confusion of the demolition of the build- 
ing, and on account of the male being very similar to 
the soldiers. 

As you have seen, the queen lives in a much larger 
chamber than all the rest of " her people," in the middle 
of the building, generally near the base of the hive, and 
does nothing but lay eggs, and the workers carry these 
to other parts of the hive. 

The question naturally arises, How is the building first 
made ? I suppose that the female intended to form a 
colony is seized by numerous ants, which carry her away, 
and from under the earth either begin a new building, 
or take her to a cell which had been built beforehand for 
the queen of a colony. 

A queen is found in each colony, and, when once 
there, she never stirs, her chamber being devoted to her 
sole use. 

At each end of the chamber of the queen are two 
holes, which communicate, like all the cells, with the oth- 
er parts of the building, through which soldiers and 
workers can get in and out. After the queen has been 
installed there she loses her wings. The king, which I 
have never been able to recognize with certainty, loses 
his wings also. Then a wondrous change takes place in 
the queen, and from an ordinary winged ant the change, 
or rather transformation, becomes so great that an ordi- 
nary observer would not recognize as the queen the wing- 
ed insect he had seen a few days before. 

She loses her wings, though of course her head, tho- 
rax, and legs retain their normal and former dimensions ; 
her abdomen begins to swell, and becomes so elongated 



BUILDING OF THE TREE ANT. \%ij 

and so large that it attains almost two inches in length 
among the mushroom-hived ants ; among the large ter- 
mites, to three or four inches. The head is almost lost 
sight of, and the creature looks more like a caterpillar 
than any thing else, and the exit from her house is so 
small then, that, even if the queen could move, she could 
not get out. She is imprisoned for life, and the number 
of thousands and thousands of eggs she lays is almost in- 
credible.. These are carried to every part of the build- 
ing by the workers, while the soldiers keep watch over 
her. So we may say truly that the queen is the mother 
of her own subjects. 

Besides the species of white ants I have spoken to you 
about, there are several others — the tree ant, the bark ant, 
and the forest ant. 

I will speak to you of the tree ant first. In the forest 
there is a species which makes its hives or nests between 
the ribs of the trunks of trees. The nests are from four 
to seven feet long, and six to eight inches broad, and are 
formed externally of several slanting roofs, one above 
the other. The ants that make these structures have 
long black bodies and white heads, and are unlike the 
mushroom-building ants. (See page 120 for engraving.) 

The structure begins from the ground in a somewhat 
irregular cylindrical piece of walling or building about a 
foot high, but varying to as much as eighteen inches, and 
full of cells and galleries ; then occurs the first slanting 
roof. The larger the structure, the more of these slant- 
ing roof -like projections it possesses, and they become 
smaller toward the top, the middle roof being the broad- 
est ; sometimes a few inches will separate one roof from 
the other ; the roofs communicate with each other through 



138 MY APING I KINOD OM. 

the cells by the same cylindrical piece of masonry ; the 
material of which the whole is built is very thick, hard, 
and impermeable to rain. The structure of this ant is 
not common in the forest ; but I found several, and I 
could study the habits of their inhabitants. 

JBarJc Ant. — Another much smaller species of white 
ant is found under pieces of loose dry bark on the for- 
est trees, on which they feed. The colonies were com- 
posed of a very scanty number of individuals, and the 
ants were so small and obscure that it was not easy to 
detect them. They always choose trees that are old, and 
have these scales of loose bark on their trunks from place 
to place. It is under these small patches or scales that 
the ants live. They feed on the wood, and build cover- 
ed ways, or rather tunnels, which start from the ground, 
and. communicate to the different places where the colo- 
ny has scattered itself. Now and then, scraping under 
the bark, I found that the settlement had moved some- 
where else as soon as they had come to the green of the 
tree. The- material which this ant uses to build its tun- 
nels is not earth, but wood-dust. This proves clearly 
that these white ants, with, perhaps, the exception of one 
species, build their nests of the same material as they eat, 
but not till after it has- passed through their stomachs, 
and received an admixture of glutinous fluid. The quan- 
tity thrown by this little species was so minute that I 
could hardly have seen it with the naked eye. They 
worked exactly like the others I have j ust described. I 
was unable to recognize the three distinct classes of indi- 
viduals. There seemed to be only two sets — soldiers and 
workers. They worked very slowly when joining the 
broken portions of the tunnels I had demolished. This 



BUILDINGS OF THE FOREST TER2IES. 



139 



was accounted for by the extreme smallness of the parti- 
cles of material ejected by them, and also by the fact 
that, in consequence of the tunnel being very narrow, 
only one or two ants could work at the same time. 

Forest Termes. — Now I come to the largest, another 
species of white ant, much larger than those I have de- 
scribed before, and building far larger structures. 

The shelters of this ant are found in the forest, and 
are rather uncommon ; they are always found single ; 
their light yellow color makes them quite conspicuous in 
the midst of the dark foliage by which they are sur- 
rounded ; this yellow color comes from the soil which 
the ants use in building, and which they get from below 
the black loam. 




BUILDING OK FOREfciT ANTS. 



140 MT APINGI KINOD OM. 

The height of the structure I examined was four feet 
and a half, and the diameter, at the broadest part, two 
feet and a half ; after breaking one sinuosity, I found the 
cells to be about one inch and a half in length, and about 
half an inch in height, each cell corresponding with the 
others by corridors or round tunnels varying from half 
an inch to one inch in length, and about a quarter of an 
inch in diameter. 

In demolishing the sides, I found that the thickness of 
the wall was only one inch before the cells were found ; 
but I found the earth at the top much harder than on 
the sides, as though the builders had put a much larger 
quantity of glutinous matter in this part of the structure. 

After breaking away three inches of this yellow top of 
the nest, I suddenly came to another layer half an inch 
thick, full of little holes or cells, so small that they had 
no doubt been built on purpose for the ants to remain 
there alone, but for what reason they required to remain 
alone I was unable to discover ; at that time there were 
no ants there. 

Then with the axe I gave a powerful blow, and de- 
molished another part of the structure, which disturbed 
the ants from their dark chambers. I saw there the 
three different classes of ants : the head men, very large, 
with whitish body and black head (these were but few 
in number) ; the workers, with short and thick body and 
broad head, but not so large as the chiefs ; and, thirdly, 
the soldiers, not so large as the workers, more slender, 
and possessing longer nippers. These three distinct 
classes were the inhabitants of this curious structure. 

As I was looking at these ants, my attention Was sud- 
denly called to watch their movements. The soldiers' 



GTJRIO US WA Y ANTS BUILD. } 4| 

came, and, ranging themselves round the broken cells, 
took their stand and remained immovable. Then the 
workers came ; each carried between its pincers a small 
particle of yellow clay, which some of them collected 
from the broken pieces, and which stood in my sight, 
while others came with their loads from the cells ; 
there were sometimes two or three busy together at the 
same time and in the same cells. Each ant came and 
put down its particle of wet clay with the utmost pre- 
cision, and then with its head moved it right and left, 
and by so doing succeeded in making the bits stick to- 
gether, and so finished the wall. Each bit was put by 
the side of the one left by the previous worker, who had 
gone to fetch more, for here I saw the same ant go and 
fetch fresh pieces of the same clay, which came from 
the structure I had broken. I observed that they never 
went outside the cells to get their materials. No masons 
could have worked more systematically. 

But how could the clay which I saw them' take dry 
become suddenly wet? I took a small reed and ad- 
vanced it quietly toward some ; they made a spring at it 
(for these ants' bites are far worse than the others) and 
seized it with their nippers, and then threw upon it a lit- 
tle whitish, thickish matter, the same stuff that made the 
clay wet and ready for building purposes. During the 
working time not one of the largest class was in sight. 
The soldiers kept watch, and it was only just before the 
wall was closed that they retired. 

I give you, on the following page, a picture of the 
buildings of the termes bellicosus, which often reaches the 
height of twenty feet or more, so that you may see the 
great variety there is in the shape of the buildings made 



142 



M T APING J KJNGD OM. 




BUILDING OF THE TERMES BELLICOSTJS. 



by the white ants in Africa, according to the different spe- 
cies. It will show you that there is as much diversity in 
the houses of the ants as there is among those of different 
races of men. The difference is no greater between a 
negro hut and a beautiful stone house, than between the 
shelter of the white ant living under the bark of trees, 
and the large structures of the more ingenious archi- 
tects. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

LEAVE THE APINGI COUNTRY. GO INTO THE INTERIOR. 

I AM LOST. 1 RAISE THE AMERICAN FLAG ON A BIG TREE. 

LEAVE IT FLYING. STARVATION AND SUFFERING. 

RETURN TO REMANDJI. 

Time was passing away, and I feel that I must make 
further exploration of the country. . It seems to me, 
though I did not know why I had this feeling, that the 
Apingi did not wish me to go into another country. 
They were jealous, and I was afraid they did not want 
any other tribe to possess me. I did not tell the people 
that I thought so, and kept them good friends with me. 
That same evening, the old men were smoking their pipes 
under the veranda of Remand ji. Old Remandji was 
there, and I was ready for another long talk from him 
about the country. 

He had spoken to me, as I have told you before, of 
Sapadi, but this evening he talked to me of a people of 
whom I had never seen or heard — of men and women 
who were all small. There were no tall people among 
them. They lived in the woods, like the gorilla and 
chimpanzee, and moved from place to place without 
fixed habitations. " What !" said I, " Remandji, have you 
seen such a people ?" " No," said he, " but slaves of mine 
who came from far away (pointing in the direction of 
the rising sun) have told me often that they have seen 
them." I changed at once the conversation, fully per- 



144: MY APING I KINGDOM. 

suaded that such people did not exist. I learned that 
there were many tribes living in the distant mountains, 
and no one among the Apingi, or among their slaves, 
could tell where the immense forest in which you have 
been traveling with me, in the three volumes I have writ- 
ten for you, came to an end. Strange names of tribes 
of wild men, living in this the most gigantic jungle of 
the world, were given me, many of which I had never 
heard before. Cannibals were not known among them, 
with the exception of a tribe living far off in the north- 
east, called Moshobo. There were tribes called Madou- 
ma, Meouandji, Ngalois, Ishogo, Ashango, and others. 

So I said, "Remandji, you must give me some people, 
for I want to wander in the forest, far beyond the Apingi 
country. I want to see if I can find something new, if 
I can see the strange men, and discover new birds and 
new animals." I had a vague idea that perhaps I might 
meet with the unicorn ; at any rate, I thought I could not 
help seeing new things. 

But I was in trouble, for I was getting very poor, and 
would cut a poor figure as a king. Of course I had not 
a dollar, for money is perfectly useless there. The peo- 
ple would rather have one big bead than a twenty-dollar 
gold piece. I mean that my stock of goods for presents 
to the natives was very short. I had no more red caps, 
and I had but very few beads left. In fact, I had only 
some looking-glasses, a very few yards of calico prints, 
a few fine steel files, knives and forks, matches, and a 
few other trinkets. 

My clothes were entirely worn out. I had but little 
powder left, only five or six scores of large bullets, and 
not very many pounds of small shot. My medicines were 



MY RAGGED GARMENTS. 145 

almost gone. I had but little quinine, and what should 
I do without it if I had a return of those violent attacks 
of fever which from time to time get hold of me ? 

You would have laughed if you had seen my ward- 
robe. It was composed of a coat, a single shirt, and two 
very old pairs of pantaloons ! Happily, one of them was 
made of very strong material, but both were full of holes, 
and had been mended over and over again. One pair 
was minus half a leg ! The shirt I wore was the only 
one I had to my back, for I had given the other to Re- 
mandji. I had also a linen coat. It is true, it was ah 
most good for nothing, but, nevertheless, it was very use- 
ful, for I could wear it while my shirt was drying in the 
sun after being washed. Besides, I had two old pairs of 
socks — I should rather say, remains of socks, for I do not 
know how to darn stockings, and consequently the holes 
in the heels were getting bigger and bigger every day. 
As for the two old pairs of shoes I had on hand, I had 
mended them over and over, the needle I used being 
that with which I sewed the skins of the wild animals I 
prepared. 

How sorry I felt not to be richer, for I could have 
gone a long way into the interior. Oh how I loved to 
roam and wander in the great forest! How strange 
every thing looked to me ! It was like the discovery of a 
new world. So I said to myself, go a little further again, 
Friend Paul ! Never mind the shoes, never mind the 
quinine, never mind any thing. Go ahead for a little 
while more. 

So one fine morning Remandji and I, with a few 
Apingi, left the village and once more entered the for- 
est. We traveled entirely by compass, avoiding the em- 

G 



146 M ? APINGI KINGD OM. 

inences as far as we could. The way was somewhat 
rocky, and the forest dense. Koads there were none, and 
for the greater part of the time the rocky beds of rivu- 
lets formed our paths. Of course, these were terrible 
for the shoes. The very first day the heels of one pair 
gave out ; but, fortunately, I had another pair. 

Good Kemandji could not stand this kind of knocking 
round in the woods, and telling me at last that he was 
too old for such work, he gave me his son Okabi for a 
companion, and returned home. 

Our way in the woods was so crooked at times that it 
seemed to me as if I was really going all round the com- 
pass, and began to suspect that the Apingi either did 
not want me to leave their country, or did not know the 
roads. Several days were thus spent in wandering in the 
forest. When night came we would build a camp wher- 
ever we happened to be. One evening a tornado blew 
over the land, and broke down the trees and their 
branches all round us, but, fortunately, none fell on our 
camp, or I might not be living to write you this story of 
my weary wandering. I always had to sleep with one eye 
open, for leopards were plentiful, and their howls filled 
the forest during the night. The gloom of the woods 
was something quite appalling to the spirits. There were 
places where the forest was so sombre and silent that it 
seemed a fit place for the haunt of some sylvan monster, 
delighting in silence and in the shades of night. I won- 
dered not that the natives should be superstitious, and 
say that such monsters do exist. They often imagine 
that they see them, but as they approach near to them 
they suddenly disappear. 

The 31st of December found me in the great forest. 



NEW- YEAR IN AFRICA. 147 

That evening I thanked the Great Spirit and Maker of 
the universe for his great kindness to me during the year 
that had just gone by. 

The next day was New-year's, 1859. How time had 
fled. I had attained my manhood in that great forest 
searching after the mysteries of Nature. What wonders 
I had seen since I left home ! "What perils I had gone 
through, what warlike tribes I had met ! Dangers seen 
and unseen I had escaped, and the end had not yet come, 
for I was far away from that sea which bathed the shores 
from which I was to get a vessel, and I knew not if I 
should ever reach those shores. 

Oh dear ! At last I could go no farther. My last 
pair of shoes gave out completely that New-year's-day ! 
They were torn, both uppers and soles, and at every step 
my bleeding feet were more and more lacerated, till at 
last the agony became too great, and the strong will 
which had sustained me gave way. I had to stop from 
time to time, for I could hardly put a step foward with- 
out an accompanying scream. The pain obliged me to 
lie down near a brook, where I had stopped to bathe my 
wounded feet, but I tried hard to show I did not suffer. 
To add to the misery, I found that we were lost in the 
forest ! What was to be done ? Not a village could be 
seen. We built our camp. 1 mended my shoes all that 
evening, as well as I could, for the morrow's journey. 
We ate the last of our plantains. I took a mouthful of 
a little brandy I had, which was very precious to me as 
a medicine, and we went to sleep. 

Thus ended New - year's - day. How different from 
New-year's-day at home ! But never mind, said I to my- 
self, I have seen many things which nobody else has seen. 



148 



MY APINGI KINQD OM. 




PAUL MENDING SHOES. 



The next morning my feet were so - swollen that I 
could not force them into my shoes. We decided to re- 
trace our steps. 

On a high hill not far from our camp stood a large 
and very tall tree. After a breakfast of berries and 
wild nuts, I took from a little sack, in which it had been 
laid away, a little American flag; we tied it on that tall 
tree on the high hill. When it floated out in the breeze 
we all gave three cheers for the Star-spangled banner. 
The sight seemed to give me new courage, and I fired a 
salute of three. guns. 



MY FEET ARE SO VERY SORE. 149 

As my socks were totally unfit to wear, I tore the 
sleeves. of my shirt, and bandaged my feet carefully with 
them, forced them gently into my old torn, worn-out 
shoes, and then, giving a last look at the flag, and shout- 
ing good-by to it, I left it to float by itself in the midst 
of the mountains and forests of Equatorial Africa. 

I suffered dreadfully on my way back. I remember 
that my feet got worse instead of better. When my 
wretched shoes were beyond even tying together with 
vines, I cast them away, and bandaged my feet with 
what remained of my shirt, but it was of little use. The 
stony path and thorny jungle laughed at such protection. 
Starvation, real starvation, with nothing to eat, was also 
our lot. But one day our ears were gladdened by the 
roar of a gorilla. We killed it, and this furnished us 
with food for the remainder of our journey. 

At last, after many days of weary wandering, villages 
were seen, and finally we got into comfortable quarters 
at Remandj i. How well I was received ! These Apingi 
had learned to love me, and were glad to welcome me 
back. Old Reman dji himself was overjoyed to see his 
Spirit, and, in order to celebrate my arrival, got jolly 
drunk upon palm wine. 




CHAPTEE XX. 

I MUST LEAVE MY KINGDOM. ASSEMBLING OF THE PEOPLE. 

THEY COME TO SAY GOOD-BY. 1 MAKE A SPEECH. RE- 

MANDJl's REPLY. A HEAVY PRESENT. PRESENTS TO RE- 

MANDJI. THEY ARE SORRY I MUST GO AWAY. 

At last the day is approaching when I must quit 
my kingdom and bid good-by to the Apingi people. 
I am getting very poor. When I look at the stock of 
beads I have on hand, I feel that it is time for me to 
leave, for the Apingi people think I have power to make 
them ; and if I had none to give them they would think 
that I did not love them any more, and the consequence 
might be that they would become afraid of me. Besides, 
I feel very weary and lonely. Hardship and disease have 
prostrated my body ; when I look in the looking-glass I 
can see how sunken are my eyes, and how hollow and 
pallid are my cheeks. My lips have lost their color, and 
my poor emaciated body says to me " what a hard time 
you have had," and warns me that perhaps I shall never 
go home. I have a longing to see the deep blue, ocean 
again, to see my dear little village of Washington, to see 
the River Commi, the big pelicans that swim on it, and 
to get a peep at the big cranes that waddle on its shores, 
and the herds of huge hippopotami which are always 
in sight of my settlement. 

A fine morning, just a little after sunrise, when the 



REMAND JI L OKS A T ME STEADIL Y. \§\ 

birds were singing, I went to the hut of Remandji and 
told him that I wanted him to send messengers to all 
the villages of the Apingi, for the Moguizi wanted to 
leave the country, and bid the people good-by. Good 
old Remandji looked me in the face steadily, and said, 
with a sad voice, " Moguizi, must you go — must you leave 
our land?" Then he called Minsho, the great-grand- 
nephew of the King of the Ashira, who had brought me 
from that country of his, and said to him, " The Spirit 
must go back ; we are all sorry, but it is his will, and we 
must submit." 

Then Remandji, with a heart too full to speak any 
more, got up and disappeared back of his house, and 
went into the house of the Alumbi, where the heads of 
some of his great ancestors were, and the ochre upon 
which they had rested. He rubbed his forehead, the mid- 
dle of his chest, and all along his arm with it, and then 
came out. 

There was a great commotion in the place when they 
heard I was going. 

Messengers were sent to all the villages of the Apingi 
country, and the next day the people began to pour in 
from every quarter, loaded with provisions. The village 
could not hold all the people, so olakos, or "encamp- 
ments" were made in the forest by them. Chief after 
chief made his appearance. These were the representa- 
tives of all the Apingi clans. The forest surrounding 
our village was filled with people who had come from 
the mountains, from down the river, and from the val- 
leys. 

The day for saying good-by had arrived. Two seats 
were placed in the middle of the street, close together — 



152 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

one for Remand ji, the other for me, The drummers 
ranged themselves in a semicircle on one side, covered 
with fetiches. The chiefs or heads of clans had collected 
at Remandji's house. Suddenly the drums began to 
beat, and Reman dji and the chiefs advanced toward my 
hut. The people, who completely filled the village, 
chanted a plaintive hymn, and when they came in front 
/of my hut they stopped, and I came out and followed 
them. Remand ji and I seated ourselves on the seats 
that had been reserved for us, while the old men and 
chiefs seated themselves on the ground in front of us. 
A profound silence reigned. Not a whisper could be 
heard. The eyes of every one were turned toward me. 

The Ashiras who had taken me to the Apingi country 
were seated near me, in front, between the Apingi chiefs 
and Remandji and myself. 

I got up, and took from off my shoulder the kendo 
with which I had been invested when made a king, and 
which I have described to you in " Lost in the Jungle," 
and rang it ; then, with as loud a voice as I could possi- 
bly master, I said to them, "Apingi, the Spirit, who loves 
you, is going away. The sun will not rise twice again 
over your village before I shall be far away, for to-mor- 
row morning I shall start in the direction Avhere the sun 
disappears beyond yonder forest, and where it sets. My 
voice you will hear no more. With your women and 
with yourselves I shall talk no more. Your children 
will not play with me any more. The ticking of my 
clock (pointing in the direction where it was) will go 
with me. Apingi, I love you. Apingi, you have been 
good to the Spirit. The Spirit will never forget you. 
Remandji, you are my friend ; Remandji," said I once 



I BING THE KENDO. 



153 



more, taking his two hands in mine, "you are my friend," 
and I looked steadily in his face. 




THE SPIRIT TAKING LEAVE. 



Then, ringing the kendo once more, I shouted with all 
my power, " Apingi, it is the last time I shall ring the 
kendo in your land. When you made me king you gave 
it to me, and as your chief I had to wear it. To you, 
Remandji, I now return it." But as I was ready to hand 
the kendo to Remandji, the people, with one voice, shout- 
ed, " Keep it ! keep it in remembrance of us. Keep it, 
Spirit ! keep it ; for we want you to ring the kendo in the 
land of the spirits." So, in the midst of tremendous and 
exciting cheers, I replaced the kendo on my shoulder, and 
then seated myself. I have since presented the kendo to 
my much-venerated friend, Sir Roderick Murchison. 
G2 



154: MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

Then Remandji got up and said : " Apingi people, the 
Spirit is going away. The Spirit is to leave us. But 
the Spirit can not be angry with us. The Spirit has 
said, and you have heard him say it, that he loved me 
and that he loved you. To-morrow morning the Spirit 
is going away. I have seen the Spirit ; you have seen 
the Spirit. We have heard him talk, and he has given 
us his hands many a time. Many of the things he has 
given us we wear. But many have not seen him ; many 
have been afraid of him. By-and-by, when they come 
into our villages and do not see the Spirit, and we tell 
them once he was amongst us, they will say it is a lie — 
it is a lie ; the Spirit has never come among you." 

Then he seated himself, and immediately after the 
drums began to beat, and the people sung : 

' ' The good Spirit is going away. 
The good Spirit is going where the sun goes. 
The good Spirit will talk to us no more. 
The good Spirit will not hunt any more in our woods. 
The good Spirit is the friend of Remandji. 
The good Spirit loves Remandji. 

Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh!" 

Then a large anvil of iron was brought before me by 
two slaves, and presented to me. It was used by the 
people in their blacksmithing operations, and must have 
weighed, I thought, about one hundred pounds. It was 
too heavy to carry away, and, besides, as it came from a 
far interior country, and was not made by the Apingi, I 
thought the people wanted it a good deal more than I 
did. So I said," Apingi, take this anvil; you want it to 
work upon. It would be hard for you to get another. 
The Spirit wants you to work, for he loves people to be 
blacksmiths." 



PRESENTS TO REMAND JL 155 

Then Remandji gave me two beautiful caps made of 
palm leaves, done in fine crochet work. These I have 
always kept, and they have excited the admiration of 
many ladies for the neatness of the work. 

Then a great quantity of food was laid at my feet — 
bananas, sugar - cane, pea - nuts, pine - apples, plantains, 
fowls, smoked fish, etc. These things made a big pile 
before me, and the people shouted, " Moguizi, these you 
will eat on your way toward where the sun sets, while 
you are traveling in the big forest." 

Then, 'in the presence of all the people, I gave to Re- 
mandji my knife and fork — the very knife and fork 
with which the people had seen me eat every day while 
I was among them. 

Then, taking a pair of scissors from a bag at my side, I 
cut off a long lock of my black hair, and presented it to 
Remandji, telling him to keep it in remembrance of me. 
Here the excitement of the people became intense. Loud 
shouts rang from one end of the village to the other ; the 
people became wild, jumped to and fro, and danced and 



" The Spirit has given his hair to Remandji, 
The Spirit truly loves Remandji, 
Remandji will always keep the hair of the Spirit." 

When this was finished they came toward me in a half- 
sitting posture, looking me in the face, and clapping their 
hands, and singing — 

' ' Spirit, why do you leave us ? 
Spirit, why are you going away ? " 

When these ceremonies were over the people separated, 
and returned to their huts, or to their olakos in the for- 
est. 



15G MY APING I KINGD OIL 

In the afternoon I went into Eemandji's house, and, 
at his own special request, I covered the walls with New 
York papers, which I had received while in the Ashira 
country. They had been left for me by some stray ves- 
sel on the coast, had found their way to Washington, and 
from Washington had gone to Goumbi, and from Goum- 
bi Quengueza had sent them to me at the head- waters 
of the O venga. Among them were copies of " Harper's 
Weekly," and of all the dailies that were at that time 
published in New York. What a treat it was ! 

He was very proud of these decorations, and said that 
when another Spirit came to see him he would show 
them to him ; and if the people should say, " It is a lie, 
the Spirit has never come to your country," he would 
point to these papers as proof of his assertion. I warn- 
ed him to guard against the white ants, as they are very 
fond of paper. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

GOOD-BY TO EEMANDJI. 1 CEOSS THE EIVEE. THE ASHIEAS 

FEAE THE BAKALAIS. A BAEALAI VILLAGE. CEOSSING 

THE LOUVENDJI. I MEET QUENGUEZA. AEEIVAL AT 

WASHINGTON. 

The day of departure has at last come. All our pro- 
visions have been gathered. For three days past the 
Apingi have -been coming to say good-by to me. We 
are on the banks of the river, and the canoes that are to 
ferry us over are waiting. 

I am well again. My feet had been getting better ev- 
ery day. With the skin of an antelope I had made some 
kind of boots to protect them. You would have laugh- 
ed if you had seen my attempt at shoemaking. 

Remandji is by my side, and leads me to the river 
bank. I am followed by my Ashiras. We get into the 
canoes. Remandji and I look at each other for the last 
time. I take hold of his hand, blow upon it, and I am 
off! Soon after I stand on the bluff on the opposite 
shore. A wild hurra from the Apingi I have just left 
greets our ears. Rem and ji waves his hands to me. I 
wave mine to him, and, just before disappearing in the 
great forest, I fire a gun, and look back for the last time 
at the good old chief and at his people. As we entered 
the great jungle, the sound of a multitude of voices dim- 
ly reaches our ears. It is the last good-by from the good 
Apingi people to me. 



1(}0 MY APIIs OI KINGD OM. 

Once more I plunge into the great forest toward where 
the sun sets, and shall not stop till the broad Atlantic 
stops my footsteps. 

My first adventure during the day was to start a flock 
of white-nosed monkeys. I was lucky enough to kill 
the very biggest of the flock. But how he dogged me ! 
He seemed to know that I was after him. 

The rain had been heavy of late, and the forest was in 
many places muddy. Toward evening I spied a village 
situated in a little prairie just in the edge of the woods. 
I discovered it by the smoke curling up from the huts, 
the huts themselves being low, and overshadowed by the 
background and tall trees of the forests. As there was 
a prospect of a tornado, I insisted on going to the village 
for the night. 

" But," said Minsho, " suppose they are enemies ? Sup- 
pose some Ashira are there, and they catch us, what 
then?" 

Pointing to my revolvers, I said, " Minsho, no one will 
capture you when I am with you." This seemed to re- 
Assure him. 

We entered the village, the people fleeing at the same 
time. The old chief and a few other men alone re- 
mained. They were Bakalais. These Bakalais people 
seem to be scattered all over the country, for I meet 
them every where, and they always seem to be dreaded 
by the other tribes. 

The chief gave me a gazelle, and called his people 
back. I gave them a few beads. I could not give 
them much, for you know I was very poor. 

The chief gave me the nicest hut in his village to 
sleep in ; but, toward midnight, I was suddenly started 



THE TORNADO UPSETS THE VILLAGE. \Q\ 

from m.j sleep by the roof of my establishment being 
swept off by a tornado, which had come down with fear- 
ful power. I tell you I cleared out in the wink of an 
eye into the middle of the street. The whole of the vil- 
lage was upset. There was not a roof standing. I was 
blinded by the lightning, and the rain began to fall by 
the bucketful. The thunder was deafening, and we all 
stood in the middle of the street, the rain pouring down 
upon us without mercy, and my clothes sticking to me 
as if I had been ducked in a stream. 

The next morning we started, and had an awful time 
of it, for it rained hard the greater part of the day ; and 
when at last I reached the Louvendji River, it was so 
swollen, and the water rushed down with such a fearful 
velocity, that it was utterly impossible to cross. We 
must build our camp close to its banks, and there wait 
as patiently as we could for the waters to subside. 

This part of the forest seemed to be filled with bees. 
They came about us in great swarms, and plagued us out 
of our lives ; and. as if this was not enough, we had also 
the boco, the nchouna, and the ibolai. These are old 
enemies of ours, as you well know. We were also tor- 
mented by several varieties of musquitoes. Our ripe 
plantains seemed to attract the bees. It made me wish 
to see all the bee-hives in the country out of the way, 
and I did not bless the boco, nchouna, and ibolai. The 
next morning I thought I should go mad with the igoo- 
guais. I have described to you all these pleasant flies in 
my former volumes. 

In the afternoon of the following day we thought we 
could venture to cross, although the current was still 
very strong. Each of us had armed himself with a 



162 MY APING I KIN OD 031. 

strong stick six feet long, to be used for support against 
the strong current, as no one could have crossed without 
them. 

Minsho started first, and, before we knew it, he tum- 
bled down, and rolled over in the foaming billows of 
the Louvendji several times, but, after a hard struggle, he 
succeeded in getting on his legs again, and scrambled 
out of the river. As the waters were subsiding fast, we 
waited about three hours longer, and then made another 
trial. 

This time Minsho had no idea of putting himself for- 
ward as our pioneer. He had had enough in the first 
attempt. Each one advised his neighbor to go first. One 
of the Ashiras started, and succeeded in reaching the 
left bank with very little trouble ; but I saw that the wa- 
ter was still deep, and, as he was tall and I was short, I 
was almost sure the w^ater would reach above my head. 

At last my turn came. I entered the water, holding 
firmly to my stick. The current dashed against me at a 
furious rate, but I held my own, and, as I approached 
the left bank, a long liane (vine) was held out to me. 
I seized it, and made a great effort to reach the bank. 
The water lifted me off my feet, but I held firmly, and 
was pulled ashore. 

We continued our route, and came once more to the 
dreaded passage of the Ovigui. I wish the Ovigui had 
been in some other country. The stream was very full, 
and the current was running at an awful speed. It was 
almost up to our neck as we crossed the bridge, clinging 
firmly to the guards, and swept against us impetuously. 
We had hardly crossed when the rain began to fall in 
torrents. JSTo fire could be lighted, though the night was 



/ MEET Q UENG UEZA. 263 

pitch-dark, and it was no joke to receive the rain all 
night on our unprotected bodies. I seated myself on the 
little chest which once contained my clothes, and fired 
my gun from time to time to frighten the leopards and 
other wild beasts, none of us wanting to be- carried off by 
. them. 

The day dawned at last, and we reached Olendo in the 
midst of most tremendous cheers. None of us had per- 
ished. Then I became very home-sick. I had nothing 
more to keep me in Africa. I was out of every thing, 
and I longed to leave the Ashira country. So I made 
preparations to start off for the sea-shore as soon as pos- 
sible. 

The parting day came. Every thing was ready. Olen- 
do said good-by. The Ashira and Quengueza's people, 
who had come to meet me, followed me till I disap- 
peared from the plain, and had plunged out of sight 
once more into the great forest. 

We had hardly been gone more than two hours when, 
before we knew it, we were in the midst of a large army 
of bashikouays. Goodness gracious ! I shouted, jump- 
ing as high as I could, and making a face, which showed 
at once that I felt the bites of these dreadful- insects. 
They seemed to bite me every where, and they were dif- 
ferent from the other bashikouay ; in fact, these were a 
new species. They were larger, stronger, and much 
slower in their movement. Their bite was more severe. 
Their heads were armed with heavy pincers, which took 
off the flesh at every bite. We jumped high up in the air 
to avoid them. The men, at every bite, would say br&w, 
ftrew, brew, which is an exclamation meaning " it hurts." 
It is very expressive. 



1 64 MY APING I EINGD OM. 

At length we reached the banks of the Ofoubou. 
Quengueza's canoes were waiting for us. I slept at good 
Obindji's. The next day we started, and finally reached 
the village of Goumbi. Quengueza was on the shores to 
welcome me. How happy he was to see me. How hap- 
py I was to see that he was quite well.* It did my heart 
good to see the best friend I had in Africa. We hugged 
each other in the good old African fashion among equals. 
I told him I had been made a king. I can stay but a few 
days with him. I must go. I am dreadfully home-sick. 

A few days after this I arrived in Washington. Ran- 
pano welcomed me. My houses were in good order, and 
nothing had been stolen from me. The people are hon- 
est, and they love me. 

I must see the ocean. How it made my heart leap 
for joy when I saw the deep blue water ! It was grand. 
I kneeled down on the sand, and thanked God for his 
great kindness to me, the poor and lonely traveler of the 
jungle of Equatorial Africa. 

How glad I was when I returned to that dear little 
bamboo house of mine, and looked at the dear little 
akoko (my bed), and saw my little clock still on the man- 
tel-piece waiting for me, though its ticking had ceased. 
How refreshing it was to see the little comforts that 
were to surround me once more. 

I immediately went to look into several tin Japanese 
boxes which were full of provisions and other good 
things to eat. In one there was a little coffee and tea, 
in another some preserved meat, in others rice, crackers, 
etc. Not a thing had been touched. It would never 
have entered the head of good Ranpano or any of his 
people to rob me. 



UNPACKING OF BOXES. 167 

I wish you could have seen how glad the Commi were 
to see me ; how many fowls and bunches of plantains 
they brought me. 

I was at home again ; once more I was in my African 
home, in my little settlement of Washington. There 
stood piles upon piles of boxes filled with trophies of my 
hunting, all well preserved and well kept by the aid of 
arsenic, of which, when I left New York, I had taken 
with me one hundred pounds. 

I wish you had been with me when I unpacked the big 
boxes which contained the immense collections in natu- 
ral history I had made. You would have seen 'that I 
had not been idle. I am sure you would have been de- 
lighted with the sight of those boxes. There would come 
out of one a huge gorilla, a chimpanzee, or nshiego 
mbouve ; from another a wild boar, an antelope, or a 
gazelle ; then from another would come out hundreds 
of birds, with smaller quadrupeds. Then came another 
box ; then would come crocodiles, queer-looking turtles, 
stuffed fish and snakes. The next would be a box of 
shells, then one of insects and butterflies, and another 
containing otters, hyenas, leopards, squirrels, wild cats, 
rats, mice, and I do not know what else. 

What are these big things? They are manatees. Then 
come three huge hippopotami. I opened their stom- 
achs, and there came out from their inside gorillas and 
their skeletons, and any amount of stuffed wild beasts. 
Every animal I killed I stuffed and brought home, with 
the exception of the elephants, for I did not know how 
I could ever carry a stuffed elephant through the jun- 
gle. I am sure you will agree with me, it would be a 
most difficult work. The hippopotami, which, of course, 



I Q 3 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

I killed by the river side, I could put in canoes and 
send to Washington by water. I have given one of their 
skins to my distinguished friend Bierstadt, whose magnifi- 
cent paintings some of you have seen. I can assure you 
it was an immense work for me to carry these collections 
through the jungle and take them to my different depots, 
till I took them to my settlement of Washington. It 
would have made your heart glad to see the many species 
of birds and animals which were entirely new, and which 
I have since described before scientific societies. There 
were also boxes which did not contain skins of wild 
beasts 'or other specimens. You would have seen that 
they contained queer guitars covered with snake skin or 
elephants' ears. You would have seen handja, terrible- 
looking spears, huge square knives, long, double-edged, 
sharp-pointed knives, bags of poisoned arrows, sharp- 
pointed axes, war-axes, shields made with the skin of 
the elephant, and other fearful implements of war made 
by those savages ; and you would have shouted with one 
voice, " Oh, Friend Paul, we wish we had been with you 
in those great forests of Equatorial Africa I" 

And now let us take a cruise along the western coast 
of Africa, live a great part of the time on board of a 
ship, and see new countries, unlike the regions where we 
have been wandering together so long. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE ISLAND OF MADEIEA. SAILING FOE SENEGAL. A HUGE 

SHOAL OF POEPOISES. THEY SWIM SO FAST. HAEPOON- 

ING POEPOISES. EEJOICING ON BOAED. HOW POEPOISE 

MEAT TASTES. 

Some years ago I visited the beautiful island of Ma- 
deira, where we had come to revictual after a most se- 
vere storm, under the violence of which our ship almost 
foundered. Our boats had been carried away, the live- 
stock had been washed off by the waves, our provisions 
had been partly destroyed, and for a few hours we were 
in danger of going to the bottom of the ocean. It was 
the first great storm I had experienced at sea, and the 
waves appeared frightful to me, for I was no sailor at all. 

How beautiful was that island of Madeira, with its hills 
covered with grape-vines, and trees bearing all kinds of 
fruits. Bananas, pears, apples, chestnuts, walnuts, or- 
anges, lemons, and grapes were to be found in great 
abundance. In fact, almost, if not all the fruits belong- 
ing to the temperate zone seem to be there, with others 
belonging to tropical climates. 

Our vessel was called The Roland, commanded by a 
rough but good-hearted captain. I made great friends 
with a sailor by the name of John, who was always 
ready, when off duty, to do any thing for me. 

For several days after leaving the island, when ready 
to continue our voyage, the breeze was fair and the sky 

H 



170 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

clear. Only a few white, fleecy clouds were tossed about 
by the wind. The sun shone upon the sails of our ship 
all day, and made them appear of a snowy whiteness. 
The beautiful blue sky seemed to give its color to the 
sea, which appeared more blue by the contrast of the 
white caps of its gentle waves. How I enjoyed the breeze 
as it blew upon my face ! I could feel that it made me 
strong. What an appetite it gave me. In the evening 
I would watch the wake of the ship, which was like a 
line of fire. 

The Roland was a good sailer, and many a time we 
were going at the rate of ten miles an hour. We were 
bound for West Africa. The Senegal country was the 
first land we intended to put our feet upon after leav- 
ing the vessel. A few days brought us to the leeward 
of the island of Teneriffe. I shall never forget the time 
when I got a sight of the high-towering and snowy peak. 
It was in the morning. Not a* cloud hung over the land. 
The island, for about a third of its height, was covered 
with snow. It rose before us like an enchanted land — a 
land which seemed to rise so high that it looked as if it 
wanted to kiss the sky. It rose right from the sea to a 
height of more than 12,000 feet. 

It was a sight never to be forgotten. To this day I 
have this island before me. I remember well that when 
the shades of evening cast their gloom over the se% 
this tall, giant-like island appeared to me like a ghost 
gradually fading away from my sight. My eyes were 
riveted upon the spot, though I could see nothing, till the 
captain called to me, " What are you doing there ? You 
seem as still as a statue." He was right. I was think- 
ing, when he awoke me from my deep thoughts, of the 



A CALM AT SEA. 



171 



tremendous volcanic outburst that must have taken place 
to raise the island from the bottom of the sea — what 
a powerful uprising of the fiery elements below; for 
Teneriffe is entirely of volcanic origin. As the island 
faded from sight, I knew that I should probably never 
see it again, and I silently said good-by to it. That 
very same night a gale of wind blew, which made the 
ship roll and pitch in a way that was not comfortable. 
Happily, the storm lasted only a few hours. 

My heart, during the voyage, was bounding with joy, 
for I was going to a country which I had never seen, 
and of which I had read so much. Senegal was to be 
one point we were to visit. We were going to sail along 
the coast which forms the boundary of the great Sahara. 
The navigation w T as dangerous, and woe to the poor 
shipwrecked mariner who is cast upon that inhospitable 
coast. 

I shall see the wild Arab, or Moor-, I shall ride on 
the back of a camel ; I shall get a glimpse at the huge 
baobab-tree, and probably meet with all kinds of adven- 
tures. 

I feel in high spirits. The voyage has thus far been 
prosperous. The wind has been fair a great part of the 
time. The health of the crew is good, and all the dam- 
age the great storm has done to the ship has been re- 
paired*, so you will not wonder that I feel happy and 
hopeful. 

One afternoon a dead calm overtook us. There was 
not a ripple on the water, which was as smooth as a mir- 
ror, but the heavy swells of the sea made the vessel roll 
in the most fearful manner, for the sails were of no use 
in steadying her. They only flapped and flapped against 



172 MY APINGI KINGDOM. 

the mast with such force that I really thought the whole 
rigging, with mast, would break down. Happily, every 
thing on board was lashed carefully to the bulwarks or 
to the iron rings in the deck, which were fastened to the 
beams underneath. 

The rays of the sun were pouring down upon us with 
great force. 

When thus becalmed, the vessel became unmanagea- 
ble, the rudder was of no use whatever, and the poor 
ship was literally swinging round and round in a circle. 

We did not like it at all. We knew that we might be 
becalmed for several days, and the prospect of a fair 
passage to Senegambia became blue as the. sea. The 
captain hoped, however, that after sunset a breeze would 
spring up. We were disappointed. After sundown it 
did not come. I was tired out, for it was impossible for 
a man to stand up. I had to hold fast to a rope in order 
not to be flung to the other side of the vessel head fore- 
most. 

That night it was impossible for any body to sleep, 
and as for eating at the table, I gave it up ; but I man- 
aged to eat what I could, in a very uncomfortable man- 
ner, on deck. I can tell you that in such a time we did 
not care for hot coffee or soup. 

Oh glad was I when the morning came. At sunrise a 
light breeze greeted us, and soon after we were under 
good headway again. I was sitting at the bow of the 
vessel, holding fast to a rope with one hand, and watch- 
ing the vessel as she went through the water, which she 
seemed to cut in two. Oh, how beautiful is a fine morn- 
ing at sea in that region ! The tropical breeze was fan- 
ning us, and seemed to come from balmy lands to wel- 



THE TRAVELING PORPOISES. 173 

come me. The sky was blue, and the water seemed still 
bluer than the sky ; and the sun, as it shone upon the sea, 
seemed to say, " I am the source of all life in this world." 
The sailors, meantime, were busy washing the deck, 
in which the captain took great pride, it was so white 
and clean. The cook was busy preparing breakfast, and 
every thing was alive on board the good ship Roland. 

While sitting at the bow, as I have described, I sud- 
denly spied ahead of us an immense number of por- 
poises, swimming and jumping out of the water, and 
seeming to be migrating to some other region in the 
ocean. As they were moving from east to west, they 
were going to cross our bows, and I shouted, " Captain, 
porpoises are ahead of us !" He gave a look, and an- 
swered, " That is so — that is so ; let us see if we can not' 
kill one for dinner." The porpoises were moving along 
like a vast army, thousands and thousands of them to- 
gether. Onward they swam, stopping for nothing in 
their migration, every now and then springing clear out 
of the water. And how fast they did swim ! I believe 
the porpoise to be one of the fastest fishes in the sea. 

" Get the harpoon ready !" shouted the captain. " John, 
take the harpoon, go under the bowsprit, and harpoon 
one of these fellows if you can." 

" Captain," I shouted, " let me have a harpoon too ; I 
must try to harpoon one of these porpoises." 

" If you try," said he, " you must be tied fast with a 
cord round your waist, for, as sure as you live, if you are 
not made secure with a rope, you will drop into the 
water, and that will be the end of you. John," said he, 
"fasten a rope round your waist also." It was hardly 
said when the captain had a rope round me, as he want- 



1 74 MY APING I KIN OB OM 

ed to make sure himself that I was safe. John had made 
himself secure. My harpoon was a real nice one, which 
had done good service before in harpooning porpoises, 
and had also gone into the bodies of a goo# many sharks. 

By the time we were ready we were in the midst of the 
porpoises. They did not seem to be frightened at all by 
the ship, and they swam so fast that they seemed to skim 
through the water. Some of them must have really 
gone at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour. I 
was perfectly amazed. They must have thought our 
ship was a big floating rock, for many would swim round 
and round us, and that when we were going at the rate 
of nine knots (miles) an hour, and seemed to make no 
effort to accomplish the feat. They would pass under 
our bowsprit with the rapidity of an express train. Three 
times John had sent his harpoon at them, and three times 
he had missed them. I had sent mine twice, and, of 
course, I had missed. 

" John," said I, " we must harpoon one of these fel- 
lows, for I hear they are good to eat." " I bet they are," 
said John ; " the liver is splendid eating, cooked with 
onions. The meat has no taste of fish, and looks some- 
what like beef." This splendid prospect of a good meal 
made me feel more than ever that one of these porpoises 
must be harpooned. I was tired of pork and salt beef, 
and then I had never tasted of a porpoise, and wanted to 
know if they were really good. Some of them did not 
swim so fast as others. See, one is coming! John's 
eyes are upon it, and his harpoon is ready. I am watch- 
ing ; I am ready too. Down goes John's harpoon ; mine 
goes down at the same time. I have struck a porpoise ! 
The captain, who by this time is by me, seizes the line 



HAULING IN PORPOISES. 



175 




HARPOONING POKPOISES. 



of the harpoon. The blood of the porpoise darkens the 
blue sea as we slowly draw him in over the side of the 
ship. 

John, too, has harpooned a big fellow, and the crew 
comes to assist in hauling him in. 

There is a desperate struggle from the porpoises. It 
is of no avail. They are on deck. I am wild with ex- 
citement. I shout, " I have harpooned a porpoise !" I 
really thought I had done a wonderful thing. This por- 
poise measured over six feet, and what a beautiful color ! 



176 MY APINOI KINOD OM. 

I really do not think it belongs to the same species which 
we have at home, for I do not remember having seen a 
single specimen near the African coast similar to this. 
These are always met in the middle ocean. The color 
on the back was grayish-black, while the sides were 
somewhat grayer, and the abdomen was whitish. It 
must have weighed two or three hundred pounds. 

There was great rejoicing on board, for we were to 
have plenty of food. The cook came with his huge knife 
to help the sailors, and the two poor porpoises were soon 
cut to pieces. They had no fat whatever. The flesh 
was red, and not unlike that of beef. The liver, being 
considered by the sailors as the best part of the fish, was 
given to the captain. 

For dinner we had porpoise steak, and it was not bad 
at all. Sailors being fond of onions, the steaks were 
surrounded with them. I did not care, as there were no 
ladies on board; as for the liver, it was perfectly ex- 
quisite. We had a glass of good wine after dinner that 
day. The sailors had a jolly time, and ate ad libitum 
of the flesh. 

In the evening they felt quite jolly, and smoked their 
pipes with great delight, and sang a great many songs. 
1 felt very happy to see these good sailors enjoying them- 
selves. These poor fellows have a hard life, and we do" 
not know how much we are under obligations to them 
for fetching to us from distant climes many of the lux- 
uries we enjoy. 



& 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

APPROACHING THE SENEGAL.- 

OUS NAVIGATION. SHIPWRECKS OF VESSELS. TERRIBLE 

SUFFERING OF THE CREW OF THE MARGARET. OUR 

FEARS. TAKING SOUNDINGS. 

We were getting every day nearer our point of des- 
tination, and approaching the great desert of Sahara. 

Our evenings were spent with the captain in relating 
our adventures. The captain had traveled all round the 
world, and spoke to me of strange countries where I had 
never been. Oh, I wished to go where he had been — to 
China, Japan, India, and the East Indian Archipelago. 
He had seen the orang-outang in its native wilds. He 
had been in Brazil, the West Indies, and many islands 
of the Pacific. But then he had not been in the equa- 
torial regions of Africa. He had not seen the gorilla, 
the chimpanzee, the nshiego mbouve, or the kooloo-kam- 
ba. Now and then I would have a talk with the sailors 
on the forecastle, for I love the sailors dearly. Yes, they 
are blunt, rough if you like, but they are natural. They 
always say right out what they mean, and are almost 
always kind-hearted. Those who are not are rare ex- 
ceptions. 

They would frequently tell me about their wild pranks, 
and what a laugh we would have over some of them ! 
At other times they would almost start tears from my 

H2 



178 MY ATINQI KINGDOM. 

eyes by telling me some of their great trials, shipwrecks, 
and stories of starvation and thirst on desert islands. 
Especially was my heart full of sympathy for them when 
I heard their story of their lying in port surrounded by 
pestilence and death, the yellow fever, the black vomit — 
these terrible scourges carrying away sometimes almost 
every body on board, and often leaving ^butrone "or two 
as witnesses of the terrible plague, so that they might 
tell the story of their sufferings to their fellow-men. At 
other times they would tell of their hardships on the 
coast of Africa, and the terrible fever they had been 
subjected to in the Gulf of Guinea. It was by moon- 
light that we had our last talk. The evenings were cool 
and pleasant, and it was so nice on deck ! 

At last the voyage drew near its close. The captain 
expected soon to see land. We were not to see green 
fields, nor hills covered with trees, but the sandy and 
bleak shores of the great desert of Sahara, and feel its 
hot winds. 

The face of the captain began to appear anxious as we 
approached the shore, for we were nearing the famous 
land of Arguin, where many and many a wreck had 
taken place. There the Medusa found her watery grave, 
and many of the brave hearts that were on board died on 
the raft they had made, after long days of agony from 
starvation and thirst. 

And no wonder that the captain began to feel anxious, 
for the navigation became more dangerous as we ap- 
proached nearer and nearer to the coast of Arguin. The 
natives were fierce, and the shipwrecked people were 
either murdered, or made to suffer the most abominable 
kind of slavery. 



THE CAPTAIN'S STORY. 179 

At last, one afternoon, we got sight of land north of 
Cape Blanco. The next day we rounded the cape, and 
came to the Bay of Arguin, which is most dangerous 
to navigators on account of its numerous banks and 
shoals. 

I began to feel anxious too. I did not care to be 
made a slave. I did not care to travel as the slave of a 
wandering Arab or Moor in the great desert. The very 
thought made me shudder; and I am sure, my dear 
young folks, that you would have felt the same, for you 
know what the fate of many a shipwrecked sailor has 
been in that part of the world. The stories of their suf- 
ferings have been published far and wide. 

The evening of the day when we reached such dan- 
gerous ground, the captain related to me stories of some 
of the wrecks that had taken place there. I well re- 
member that of a friend of his, who was on board of the 
ill-fated " William Vaughan." 

The " William Vaughan" left London on the 29th of 
April, 1844. On the 20th of May she rounded Ca- ? 
Blanco, and -entered the Bay of Arguin. Suddenly Aie 
ship found itself in shallow water ; but, before she could 
be got round, she stuck fast in the sand. Large quanti- 
ties of ballast were thrown overboard, the ship was light- 
ened, and the next day she was afloat. In the mean 
time, the chief mate had been sent to take soundings 
ahead, for all the charts were incorrect, no doubt on ac- 
count of the shifting of the sand-banks. The sea being 
very heavy, he was obliged to anchor his boat for the 
night under the island. Just as he was rounding the 
point again to return to the ship next morning, he saw 
two natives and a white man coming toward the boat. 



X 80 MY APINGI KINQD OK. 

Was it possible ? It was so. The white man hailed the 
boat in English. He was a countryman — a poor unfor- 
tunate white man that had been wrecked. The kind- 
hearted mate again rounded the point, where the sea was 
not so heavy, to take in his countryman. But the mo- 
ment he landed the two natives set upon him and beat 
him unmercifully with bludgeons. The poor mate had 
landed unarmed. Ee vol vers at that time were not in 
use, though pistols were known. They would not have 
caught me in such a scrape. I never leave my revolvers 
any where, especially when traveling in a wild and dan- 
gerous country. One of the sailors hastened back to the 
boat and fetched a gun, which he gave to the natives, who 
took it and ran away, leaving the poor white man in their 
hands. 

How glad the poor fellow must have been when he 
saw his countryman ! How his heart must have beat at 
the thought that his days of slavery were over, and how 
he must have thanked God for his safe delivery ! 

Then came his sad story. He belonged to the bark 
Margaret, of London, which had been wrecked the pre- 
ceding year, in the same month of May. Nearly all the 
hands had been murdered by the savages, and those who 
were not had been made slaves. Four more were upon 
the island. When they reached the vessel, and the cap- 
tain was made acquainted with the facts, he immediate- 
ly took means to ransom his countrymen. The natives 
agreed to receive a certain amount of goods, and then 
release the prisoners; but after they had received the 
amount they asked for more ; and, after this second de- 
mand was granted, they again asked for more, and final- 
ly fired at the men, and compelled them to flee for their 



THE ATTACK ON THE " WILLIAM VAUGHAN." \%\ 

lives and to take refuge in their boats, leaving their prop- 
erty behind. 

The boat had gone ashore well prepared. They had a 
small brass gun on board, but it would seem that they did 
not know how to make effective use of it. It appears to 
have been too heavily loaded, for when it was fired it re- 
coiled with such force that one of the gunners was kill- 
ed, and, in falling overboard, by some unaccountable mis- 
fortune he upset the boat, and all the ten men were either 
drowned or killed. Not one of them came to tell the 
story of their fate. The natives got possession of the 
boat, righted and loaded her up with warriors, and came 
to attack the vessel. Only four men and the captain 
were left on board. 

It must have been a terrible moment of suspense 
among these five men. They knew it was a question of 
life or death. Every thing was ready for a deadly fight. 
Hatchets, matches, sabres, guns, pistols were at hand, 
and every thing that was heavy and handy to throw into 
the boat. What a feeling of anguish there must have 
been in the hearts of these men ! All their companions 
were dead, and they knew that the same fate awaited 
them if they were captured, for these cruel savages would 
show no mercy. 

The boat came nearer and nearer. It was swarming 
with savage men ; but fortunately, as it came broadside, 
the master, who was no doubt a good gunner, took care- 
ful aim, fired and sunk her, with all on board. Then he- 
slipped his cable, and, with only four men for a crew, 
sailed off. How anxious the poor captain and crew 
must have felt, and how much they must have dreaded 
those treacherous sand-banks in the Bay of Arguin, for 



1§2 MT APINGI KINOD OM. 

they knew what fate awaited them if they were wrecked. 
How much they must have felt the loss of their brave 
companions, whose kind hearts and courage led them to 
try to rescue their fellow-countrymen. How desolate 
and dreary the deck of that poor ship must have seemed. 
The merry songs of the sailors were heard no more as 
they furled and unfurled the sails. 

No doubt the frenzy of the savages on shore was terri- 
ble when they saw tl^at so many of their number had 
perished; they must have precipitated themselves like 
tigers on the poor white men ashore, and cut them to 
pieces. 

See how rash it was for these men to fire the big gun 
from their boat. What good could they have done? 
If they had killed any of the natives on shore, the white 
men would have been murdered instantly ; so it would 
have been far wiser for them to go on board without 
firing. It shows that, in a case like the one just related, 
it is very important for men to be cool and calculating, 
to look ahead, and to let the head control the impulses 
of the heart. 

Some of you may perhaps remember that in " Lost in 
the Jungle" I gave you an account of a trial for witch- 
craft, where a great friend of mine was accused of sor- 
cery and killed. How I fought in my heart ! I was on 
the point of rushing among the crowd and shooting 
down the natives that held her. Oh, I remember how 
near I was to doing it ; but suddenly reason told me not 
to do it. It seemed to me very hard that reason should 
govern the kind impulse of my heart ; but I let reason 
have the upper hand. I suppose, if I had fired and kill- 
ed the nephews, and sons, and people of my friend King 



THROWING THE LEAD. -j_g3 

Quengueza, and fled, even if I had not been killed, the 
good chief would have said to me, " "White man, whom I 
love, why have you killed my people ? What have they 
done to you ? To save one you have killed several." 

So what a pity it was that the men in the boat were 
so rash. Of course, it was hard to be attacked for noth- 
ing, and if there had been no white man ashore they 
would have been right in firing at the natives for their 
treachery. But white men had to be saved, and pru- 
dence would have been the best policy. They might 
have told the story to some man-of-war on the coast, 
whose captain would have been able, no doubt, to ran- 
som the men ; if not, he would have been able to inflict 
on the natives such terrible punishment that they would 
not have been ready to fire again. 

You will not be astonished to hear, after this, that there 
were men constantly on the watch. One sailor was al- 
ways kept at the top of the mainmast, the time of his 
watch being two hours, when another would relieve him. 
Men were continually throwing out the lead to take sound- 
ings. It is not every sailor who knows how to throw the 
lead, and only three on board were skillful at it. I can 
assure you it is hard work — an elongated piece of lead, 
flat at one end, and smeared with tallow, so that when it 
touched the bottom they could ascertain the character of 
the bed of the sea where the lead was cast. If it was 
mud, of course mud would show on the- tallow, and if it 
was sand, sand would show, etc., etc. This piece of lead 
appeared to weigh about from twelve to fifteen pounds. 
It was attached to a long line, which could go with the 
lead to a depth of about sixty fathoniSo Sailors always 
measure by fathoms (six feet). 



184 



MY APING I KINGDOM. 

w 




HEAVING- THE LEAD. 



The sailor who was to throw the lead stood in the rig- 
ging of the foremast, just ontside of the bulwark. He 
held the line, which was so coiled about his right arm 
that it would pay out easily, about six feet from the end* 
to which the lead was fastened. Before throwing it, he 
would swing it a moment with great force, and then, let- 
ting go, send the heavy lead flying ahead beyond the bow 
of the ship before it struck the water. 




CHAPTEE XXIY. 

AT THE MOUTH OF THE GREAT SENEGAL RIVER. APPEAR- 
ANCE OF THE COUNTRY. A VILLAGE. THE HOUSES. A 

SANDY COUNTRY. HOW THE PEOPLE CARRY MILK. 

"We passed through the much-dreaded region without 
any serious mishap. Our vessel arrived before the great 
Senegal River, and anchored outside of the bar. I must 
confess that I was very glad, for I did not relish the idea 
of a wreck on the inhospitable shores I have just de- 
scribed to you. 

A few days after the arrival of the Roland, I was 
quietly settled in a quaint old negro town on the sea- 
shore opposite the island of St. Louis, the chief French 
settlement on the Senegal River. What a queer village 
it was ! It had stood on the same spot for several gen- 
erations, on the narrow tongue of land which separated 
the river from the sea, a few miles from its mouth. This 
land might properly be called the beginning of the Great 
Sahara. On the left or south of the village, as far as 
the mouth of the river, the eye met only a continuous 
stretch of white sand ; on the right or north, the same 
aspect of country presented itself to view; but as the 
eye followed the shore northward, the extent of country 
became broader, and toward the river side stunted trees 
and scraggy bushes or shrubs were visible on approach- 
ing its banks; otherwise a vast sandy tract of country 



186 



MY APING I KINGDOM. 



was all that could be seen. The country presented an 
appearance of utter desolation, entirely unlike the great 
equatorial regions where I have led you in this and the 
three preceding volumes. How unlike the villages of the 
forest was this village of the lower Senegal country. It 
was built on the downs or sandy hills which had been 
formed by the sands which were constantly accumula- 
ting there by being shifted from the Great Desert by the 
winds blowing from it. Some of these sand-hills were 
quite high. 




VILLAGE ON TUB LOWER SENEGAL. 



The houses were round, the walls built of clay collect- 
ed from the river, and generally from four to six feet in 
height. There were no windows to these huts, and only 
one door led to the interior. The sharp-pointed, some 



HOUSEHOLD FUENITUBE. 187 

what sugar-loaf shaped roofs were high, and thatched 
with straw. Inside of these huts the people cooked and 
slept. There were no regular streets, the houses being 
scattered all about, without any order or symmetry. In- 
side, a bullock-hide, or a mat upon sticks about two feet 
from the ground, formed the bed. One or two water- 
jars, some cooking-pots, a few wooden vases, several im- 
mense calabashes used as dishes or for washing, and one 
or two low stools, constituted all the furniture to be met 
with in these huts. A group of huts belonging to one 
family were surrounded by fences as a kind of wall. 
This town had, I should think, several thousand inhab- 
itants. From a distance it had a very picturesque ap- 
pearance, as you may judge by the picture before you, 
but, after entering it, the charm disappeared. 

The situation of the village was certainly very pictur- 
esque. In front there was the sea, back of it the River 
Senegal, and then the white sand of the desert on every 
other side. The people were neatly dressed, in queer- 
shaped garments made of cotton goods. 

A few little horses, some donkeys and camels which 
belonged to a caravan just arrived, might often be seen 
wandering about. But judge of my astonishment when, 
sauntering through this labyrinth of houses, I came to a 
hut in front of which were three live lions lying flat on 
the ground — three young tame lions. -As I approached 
they looked at me, as if to say, " Who is this stranger ?' ? 
but there was no anger in their gaze ; they were young, 
though quite formidable to look at. They were for sale. 
I wondered why they were not chained, and found, on 
looking more closely, that they were tied with a cord by 
the neck. 



188 MY APINOI CO UNTB Y 

The people of the village were of the negro race, but 
of a far superior type than the Congo negro. They be- 
longed to a tribe, if I remember well, called Jaloff, and 
were certainly very fine negroes. They were not hea- 
then, but very strict Mohammedans, for in the days of 
old the followers of Mohammed had converted them. 
They were generally tall, and very black, and among 
them some could be seen with straight noses, thin lips, 
and fine features. Most of them could speak the French 
language as well as their own, learned through con- 
stant intercourse with the French, under whose sway 
they lived. 

The people of the village were great fishermen, their 
chief business being to catch fish. They were very ex- 
perienced canoemen, for the whole of that coast is de- 
fended by formidable breakers, which dash against the 
sandy shores of the Great Desert with irresistible force. 
Many and many days during the year these natives find 
it impossible to cross over the breakers to go a fishing, 
and often, after making vain efforts to go through them, 
have to give up the attempt, after upsetting time after 
time. 

So I need not tell you that they are splendid swim- 
mers and canoemen. Nevertheless, accidents take place ; 
men are drowned now and then, either from sheer ex- 
haustion from swimming when they upset in the break- 
ers farthest from the shore, but more generally from the 
canoe striking them with great force as it turns over, or 
by being thrown against them by the next angry wave. 

They are, like most Mohammedans, fatalists, and be- 
lieve that Allah (God) has ordered beforehand every 
thing that is ever to happen to them. The efforts of the 



COMING TO MARKET. 189 

missionaries to convert them have been of very little 
avail, as far as I could see. 

Of course nothing could grow in that arid region, and 
their food "had to be raised on the islands higher up the 
river, or near the lagoons, swamps, and marshes on the 
right bank, where patches of fertile land are found. The 
chief food used by this people is made of a kind of millet, 
which they pound, and call kouskous. Cattle are very 
abundant in Senegal, and form the chief wealth of the 
people of the country. 

I really enjoyed the sights in this village, especially in 
the morning, when the people were coming to market. 
St. Louis, being a large settlement, with a population of 
twelve or fifteen thousand people, required a good deal 
of food, and the people would come from villages and 
farms situated higher up the river, where, as I have said, 
vegetation could be found, and where many things would 
grow ; but a good deal of the produce came also from 
the left bank of the river. 

It was amusing to see them come with milk in large 
leather bags, or bottles made of goat or sheep skins sew- 
ed carefully together, so there was no leakage; they 
were made just like those mentioned in the Bible, these 
people having made no improvement in these utensils 
for thousands of years. These bottles could hold some- 
times as much as five gallons and more. The women 
carried them on their heads. 

The butter was soft, and was also brought to market 
in the same manner — in skins. It is frequently used by 
the natives to rub their bodies with. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE SENEGAL RIVER. THE JALOFFS. THE FEHLAHS. THE 

FULAHS. THE MANDINGOES. HABITS OF THESE TRIBES. 

THE MOORS. DESERT WINDS. RECEPTIONS IN JARS. — ■ 

" HOW NICE IT IS !" 

Now that I have given you a description of the Sene- 
gal village, I must speak to you about the country. 

The Senegal River is one of the most important rivers 
of Africa, and the colony of that name is the largest and 
most thrifty on the West Coast. The country belongs 
to France, and the forts along the banks of the river ex- 
tend to a long distance into the interior. The river 
takes its rise in the region of the Kong Mountains, and 
empties into the sea in about 16° north latitude. The 
head or chief trading settlement is St. Louis. 

From Senegal comes a very large quantity of gum 
arabic, amounting to several millions of pounds every 
year. An immense trade in pea-nuts is also carried on. 
These are taken to Marseilles, where soap and oils are 
made from them. Gold is also brought from the inte- 
rior ; ,and hides, wax, and ivory form also important ar- 
ticles of trade. 

The people inhabiting the great Senegal country are 
all warlike. Among the chief negro tribes are the Feh- 
lahs, the Jaloffs, the Fulahs, and the Mandingoes. 

The Jaloffs are an active, powerful race. They are 
tall, very black, and their noses are not so flat, nor their 



THE NEGB OES OF SENEGAL. \ 9 j 

lips so thick as those of the true negro ; indeed, some 
have straight noses. 

The Fulahs are much attached to a pastoral life, and 
their hair is soft and not very woolly. Their chief wealth 
consists in the possession of cattle, which have very long 
horns. 

The Mandingoes are Mohammedan negroes, mild, and 
of pleasant disposition. They manufacture a good deal 
of cotton cloth with an ingenious loom of their own, and 
occupy a large tract of country. 

In fact, these negroes of the Senegambia country are, 
I think, far superior to those found in other parts of Af- 
rica, not only in looks, but in intelligence. 

But on the right bank of the River Senegal, and in 
the interior, live tribes of people far more powerful than 
the negroes, by whom they are dreaded. These are the 
Moors of the desert, a martial, treacherous, and vindictive 
race, always at war with their neighbors. 

As I have said, a very great part of the gum arabic 
used in the world comes from the Senegal River, and 
the Moors possess all the country from which it comes. 

These Moors have a very wild, staring look; their 
treachery is notorious, and they regard the negro villages 
that surround them the same as game, which they plun- 
der at will, and the people of which they lead into cap- 
tivity. These people are nomadic ; when the heat of the 
desert becomes intense, and every thing there is burned 
up, they move southward toward the negro country, and 
stay there till the rains have commenced in the begin- 
ning of July, when they go northward again. It is at 
that time that they commit the most depredations. They 
despise the negroes, who are very much afraid of them. 



192 MY APINGI KIN OB OM. 

But the negroes themselves are often at war with each 
other. In fact, war seems to be the normal state of Af- 
rica wherever the traveler goes. 

"With the negroes and with the Moors, cattle are the 
wealth of the country = The Moors possess great herds 
of cattle, and a great many horses, camels, and donkeys. 
The armies of these tribes of the desert are composed 
entirely of cavalry, each tribe being able to raise from 
two to four thousand horsemen. 

There are three forests in which the gum arabic is pro- 
duced in great quantities ; these are called, if I remem- 
ber rightly, Sahel, Lebiar, and Alfatack. Besides these, 
there are other groves of gum arabic trees in different 
parts of the desert. The three first-mentioned forests 
are claimed by three different tribes of Moors. The lan- 
guage of these people is, of course, Arabic, and they are 
named Trazas, Aulad-el-Hagi, and Ebraguana. Each 
tribe has its own chief. They are nomadic, and are con- 
tinually fighting with each other. Their features are 
dark brown, but fine ; their hair is black and glossy. 

The gum arabic tree has a very peculiar growth. I 
know you would like to have a description of it. It is 
an acacia, not at all beautiful, from fifteen to twenty feet 
high when full grown ; a few specimens attain a greater 
height, but in general it is more like a shrub than a tree. 
The wood is white and hard. It is very seldom that one 
sees a straight tree, and the trunk is covered, almost from 
the ground, with crooked branches of different sizes, 
which makes the tree not pretty to look at. The leaves 
are small, and under each leaf are three crooked blackish 
thorns. The flowers are white and small, and the seeds 
are contained in pods. 



THE G UM ARABIC. 193 

The month of March is the time when the harvest of 
the gum arabic takes place. You must not think that 
the gum arabic comes all in small pieces. A good 
deal of it comes out of the trunk of the tree in quite 
large lumps. I have seen pieces twice as large as an or- 
ange, and even larger, and, after breaking them open, the 
centre would be filled with liquid gum arabic, which was 
most delicious to the taste. While in the country I ate 
much of it, and it was often my chief food. It is very 
nutritious and satisfying to the appetite. It is only the 
red gum arabic which is often found in such large pieces. 
Of course, as it grows older, the liquid gradually dries 
up, though it does not become brittle like the white gum, 
some forests of which are also found near the Senegal 
River. The two gums are, however, entirely distinct. 

There are a good many islands in the River Senegal, 
some of which are very fertile, and produce millet, In- 
dian corn, yams, sweet potatoes, plantains, and bananas. 
At about ninety miles from the mouth of the Senegal 
River is a flourishing trading station, where a great quan- 
tity of gum is brought by the Moors. 

The climate of the Senegal country is any thing but 
pleasant, being subject to sudden changes. At certain 
seasons of the year the hot winds from the desert make 
it almost unbearable. The rainy season is short, and the 
climate is dry the greater part of the year. 

How much I suffered there from the hot weather ! I 
remember one day a terrible hot wind from the desert 
begun to blow. The atmosphere was terribly heated, 
and the air, which seemed to come from an oven, was 
prostrating to the physical system. It blew from the 
northeast, over the scorching sands of the Sahara — sands 

I 



194 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

which had been heated for months without a drop of 
rain to cool them. The powerful rays of the sun had 
been pouring upon the white sand day after day, week 
after week, month after month, till the whole atmosphere 
became heated, and the whole country of the desert, 
which was once a sea whose waters cooled the air of the 
countries round it, was apparently but a vast expanse 
where heat sprang from the very soil. 

I took refuge at length in St. Louis, where the houses 
are made of stone, and, like other people, I shut myself 
up in the house, and kept the windows and the doors 
closed, so that no hot air could come in. In this way the 
houses are kept tolerably cool. For three days this ter- 
rible weather lasted, except that the nights were some- 
what cooler. These hot winds from the desert often 
blow two or three days at a time, and sometimes last a 
whole week, bringing with them disease and death to the 
white man. 

When, perchance, I would come out of the place where 
I had to shut myself up, I felt the hot wind blowing in 
my face, and breathed this heated atmosphere with a feel- 
ing that it was gradually killing me. What must it be 
then, I thought, in the desert, far from the sea and from 
rivers ! There life must be sometimes almost unbear- 
able. In certain seasons of the year these hot winds 
blow quite frequently, and sometimes only a few hours 
a day. Fortunately, the people living by the sea-shore 
do not suffer from them as much as the people of the 
interior. 

If you had called on me during this hot weather, my 
dear young folks, you would have probably been aston- 
ished to see the way I would have received you, and the 



FLEEING FROM THE HEAT. 195 

queer manner in which I held my reception, inviting my 
guests to do the same as I did ; but, in order to give you 
an idea of this, I must explain how water is kept in that 
part of the world. 

The dry season in Senegal lasts about eight months. 
The white people, during the rainy season, collect all the 
water they can, either in cisterns, or in immense earthen 
jars, some of which are so large that a man can go into 
them through the opening. These jars are manufac- 
tured in Marseilles, and some of them must hold fifty or 
sixty gallons, and even more. The water is kept in them 
deliciously cool. A very fat man could not get in one 
of these jars, as the opening is small compared with the 
body. 

In one of my rooms I had several of these jars, in some 
of which I kept a little water, while in others I kept 
none. When the terrible hot weather came, it struck me 
that the coolest place I could find was inside of one of 
these jars, as they were very thick, and not liable to be- 
come heated through. So I made the trial, and found 
the experiment worked to a charm, and that I had dis- 
covered a cool retreat. As soon as the desert wind be- 
gan blowing, I would quietly put myself in one of these 
jars, and stay there for a few hours. When my friends 
were too stout to follow my example, I would apologize 
to them, and give the excuse that I had the largest jars 
that were made. Then my fat friend would look cu- 
riously at me, and say, " I wish I was as slender as you 
are." 

The first time I tried the jars I had a great deal of 
fun. Somebody came to see me, and was sent into my 
room ; but, in the mean time, having heard him coming, 



196 



MY APINGI KINGDOM. 



I had drawn my head inside, and so remained perfectly 
concealed. Seeing nothing but jars, my visitor went 
into the next room, and, seeing nobody there, he shout- 
ed, " Where are you ?" I answered back, still keeping 
my head below the opening, " Here I am !" He came 
back into my room and began to be bewildered. I could 
stand it no longer, and, bursting out with a loud laugh, 
showed my head above the jar-opening, and invited him 
to follow my example and " take a jar." 




STRANGE RECEPTION. 



During these hot spells the visitor would generally 
come in, feeling quite prostrated by the dry heat ; and, 
after the usual salutation of " How do you do, sir ?" the 
conversation would generally take the following turn : 

" How is the weather outside ?" 

" Terribly hot, sir ; suffocating ; the scorching wind is 



CONVERSA TION IN A JAM. 197 

almost unbearable. The thermometer yesterday and to- 
day stood between one hundred and fifteen and one 
hundred and twenty." 

" This is terrible, sir." 

" Yes, sir ; this is terrible." 

" Won't you take off your coat, sir, and get in ? I 
think you are not too large to get into one of these big 
jars. They are quite cool and comfortable, as the pot- 
tery is quite thick, and is glazed. There is a stool ; step 
on it; it will make it more easy for you. If you are 
afraid the jar will tumble down, I will call somebody to 
help you. Two jars have water in, sir. Two are with- 
out. Take either one you like best." 

Then, if the visitor was happy enough not to be too 
stout, he would, immediately after being bottled up, or 
rather, I should say, jarred up, shout, " How nice it is ! 
How cool and pleasant ! It is perfectly delightful ! 
What a glorious idea ! It is a good thing for you to be 
so slender !" 

If the visitor was too fat to enter the jars, his first 
recognition of me would be that of wonder. Then he 
would come and examine the aperture of the jar, look at 
his body, and then give a tremendous sigh, and exclaim, 
" How unfortunate it is for a man to be too stout !" 




CHAPTER XXYI. 

WAITING FOE A START. — THEEE YOUNG LIONS. — I PLAY 

WITH THEM. HOW THEY WEEE CAPTTTEED. TEEEIBLB 

COMBAT WITH THE LION AND THE LIONESS. THEY AEE 

BOTH KILLED. 

Having but little time to spare in Senegal, I wanted 
to make the most of it while there, and was waiting 
anxiously for a caravan that should leave for some part 
of the desert, in order to go with it. 

While waiting for the opportunity, I would sometimes 
amuse myself with the three young lions that were in 
the village, and had a good deal of fun with them. 
Each lion had a name, which I wish I could remember. 
All I can say is, that they were real difficult names to 
pronounce, for the language of the people is hard and 
guttural. They were very tame, and as playful as young 
dogs ; but, though young, they were much larger than 
any dog I ever saw. 

I would go and play with them every morning, and 
sometimes during the day, but I always liked to go after 
they had had their meals. They knew exactly the time 
these were coming, and, for almost an hour before, they 
were too busy thinking about their breakfast or dinner to 
be playful. I must say I did not like to venture near them 
when they were in such a mood ; for, though very tame, 
and though they had never bitten any bod}^ yet they 
might have tried it on me for the first time. Their jaws 



THREE STRANG E PL A YMA TES. 1 9 9 

were quite powerful, and I had strong doubts whether I 
should have come safely out of them had they once fast- 
ened on me. 

They were also armed with somewhat powerful claws, 
which certainly could have torn my flesh with the great- 
est ease. I have no doubt that, as soon as they saw the 
blood flow, their natural instinct would have come back, 
and they would have pounced upon me. The sight of 
warm blood from the body would have awakened all 
their dormant feeling, if hungry. Even without going 
so far as to fear that I might become a prey to their 
young ferocity, I knew that, judging by the pain a cat 
can inflict with her sharp claws, that the more powerful 
lions might prove to be very unpleasant playmates. At 
any rate, although the natives had assured me that their 
claws had been cut and that there was no danger, I had 
no desire to have them tried on me. 

I noticed that whenever a goat came in sight their 
eyes would glare, and their tails would wag angrily, and 
it was very evident that the goats would stand a poor 
chance if these young beasts of prey had their own way. 

After their meals I would sometimes seat myself 
among them, caress them, and scratch them. This they 
seemed to enjoy amazingly, and would look at me with 
their peculiar eyes, which have nothing unkind or treach- 
erous in them when they are not hungry or angry. Their 
look contrasted strangely with that of the treacherous 
tiger or leopard. 

I wanted to know how these lions had been captured. 
I wanted to hear the story of my three " f riends," how 
they had been deprived of their freedom, and how they 
had lost their jpajpa and mamma. I knew that they could 



200 



MY APINGI KINGD OM. 




PLAYING WITH YOUNG LIONS. 



not have been taken away easily, unless the " old folks" 
were out of the way on some excursion to get food for 
themselves and their young. At last my curiosity was 
satisfied, and their story was told me by the side of the 
young lions themselves. If they could have understood 
the speech, they would have known how they were made 
prisoners. They certainly could not recollect the inci- 
dents which led to their captivity, as they were too 
young at that time. 

The man who told me the story was an old man with 
a very white beard. Before he began, several people 
came and seated themselves on the ground by our side. 
The old man then began as follows : 

"A party of Moors were returning with their herds 
from the pastures, which the heat had dried up. They 



THE LIONS ARE AR UND. 201 

were going to the southern part of the desert, where wa- 
ter was not so scarce, and where the grass was still fresh 
and sweet. The heads of the party were riding on cam- 
els. At length they came to an oasis, chiefly composed 
of dates and palm-trees. On reaching it they found evi- 
dences that lions were accustomed to go there, and, as 
there was a spring there, they concluded the beasts had 
come to drink. 

" That day, with their large herd of cattle, they en- 
camped by that oasis. Their beasts could satisfy their 
thirst at the spring, and eat of the grass in the surround- 
ing country that was not quite parched up. 

"At night the roar of lions that were lurking round 
told them that they must keep a strict watch over their 
cattle and horses. Fires were lighted with branches 
from the stunted trees, and throughout the night the 
people shouted, and now and then fired guns, to frighten 
the lions away ; but, despite of all their care, one cow 
was carried off by the king of the desert. 

" The . next day the party of herdsmen moved again 
in a more southern direction ; but four of the most dar- 
ing Moors resolved to remain behind and see if they 
could not kill the lions, lest they might follow their track 
and destroy some of their cattle. These Moors belong- 
ed to the Trazas tribe, and among them was a young 
man who was very ambitious to be enrolled among their 
great warriors. As he had neither slain a lion nor an 
enemy in battle, he could not be so called, according to 
the custom of the tribe. 

"So the herd moved on, and the rest of the people with 
them ; but our four Trazas remained behind, and all that 
day were busy looking for traces of the lions. They were- 

12 



202 MY APINGI KINQD OM. 

armed, like all the Trazas, with double - barreled flint 
guns, pistols, and huge knives. After searching many 
hours in vain, they came to a thicket of trees, which they 
entered cautiously, mistrusting that lions might be hid- 
den there. Suddenly they saw three young cubs play- 
ing together, though no old lions were to be seen. No 
doubt the old folks had gone to visit the carcass of the 
cow they had killed the day before, for the purpose of 
bringing food home to their youngsters. 

" Looking carefully to their guns, in order to be ready 
for any thing that might happen, two of them descended 
from their camels, seized the young lions, and remount- 
ed with their game, handing the third cub to one of their 
companions. They then left with the utmost speed their 
camels could make, for their only safety was to be out of 
the reach of the lions' pursuit when they should come 
back and find their young taken away. Their rage 
would be terrific, and woe to the men who had dared to 
take their young. Of course they had guns, and would 
try to kill the lions if attacked, but it would be a dan- 
gerous business. So on they went, now and then look- 
ing behind to see if the lions were after them. Never 
did their camels go so fast before. 

" They had been gone about two hours, and began to 
think themselves safe, when, to their horror, looking back 
on reaching an open country, they saw the lion and lion- 
ess in hot pursuit. They urged their camels on as fast 
as they could, but gradually the lions gained upon them, 
until their roars of rage could be distinctly heard. Near- 
er and nearer the pursuers came, till at last the Moors 
saw it was of no use to attempt to escape by running 
away, and that they must prepare for a fight if they 



A TTA CKEB B Y THE LIONS. 203 

wanted to get clear with their lives. In the mean time, 
two of the young cubs had been securely tied in a kind 
of basket or bag. 

•" They agreed that, as soon as the lions should come 
near enough, they would throw off one of the young cubs 
to distract the attention of the lioness. At the same 
time one of them would fire at the lion, and, if he was 
not killed by the shot, another would fire at him again. 
As they were all good marksmen, they were very hope- 
ful to be able to kill them. 

" The lions came roaring and bounding on, and one of 
the young ones was thrown down to the lioness, who im- 
mediately stopped to caress it, while her mate continued 
the chase. As he sprang forward in the air, one of the 
young Moors fired at him. The bullet took effect, and 
the huge beast, giving a tremendous roar of pain, rolled 
over in the sand, the blood pouring from his wound in a 
torrent. Another bullet went into his massive forehead, 
and, giving utterance to a most appalling and terrific 
roar, he rolled over and died. The lioness was then dis- 
patched by two or three well-aimed shots, and the cub 
was recaptured without difficulty. 

" In this way," added the old man, in conclusion, " these 
young lions were taken, and afterward sold to us by the 
Trazas people. We have brought them up in our village, 
and intend to sell them after a while." 



CHAPTER XXYII. 

DEPARTURE. A CARAVAN. APPEARANCE OF THE PEOPLE. 

RIDING A CAMEL. 1 AM CAMEL-SICK. WELLS IN THE 

SAND. 

I was obliged to wait so long for a caravan that I be- 
gan to feel somewhat fearful that I should have to leave 
the Senegal country without a visit to the Great Desert ; 
but at last the opportunity arrived. An excursion was 
arranged with which I was to go, which would at least 
take me to the borders of the Sahara. While waiting 
for my companions to get ready, I usually employed my 
afternoons in walking along the shore till I came to a 
spot where nothing was before me but the ocean spark- 
ling in the sunlight. Not a soul was ever within sight. 
Behind me lay an ocean of barren sand, so loose that it 
was most difficult and fatiguing to walk through it. 
How strangely the wind whispered as it blew from that 
immense extent of scorching desert ! The landscape was 
gloomy and forlorn, and had a most depressing influence 
over me. Between the sad murmurs of the wind, and 
the solemn and monotonous noise of the waves as they 
broke on the shore, I could not tell which was the most 
melancholy sound to hear. But still I loved to seat my- 
self on the edge, if I may so term it, of the Great Des- 
ert, and have before me the wide Atlantic; for then 
thoughts of home would come over me, and many mem- 
ories of the dear friends I had left behind. 



WHY CAMELS CAN STAND THIEST. 207 

At last, when my patience was almost exhausted, the 
preparations for our trip were finished, and the day of 
departure came. The caravan was going somewhere far 
to the north, and was to follow the line of the sea-shore ; 
and it was arranged that a certain number of men were 
to remain with me whenever I chose to stay behind for 
the purpose of hunting, for I did not intend to go with 
them to the end of their journey. I only wanted to en- 
joy the novelty of real desert life for a little while. 

The men were mounted on a great variety of animals, 
camels, horses, and donkeys ; and when offered my choice, 
I selected a camel, having never ridden one in my life. 
Every man was armed with a double-barreled flint-lock 
gun, and some had pistols and swords. The party was 
accompanied by a marabout (Mohammedan priest) ; he 
was a strange-looking old man, with a white beard, and 
seemed to be very much venerated by the people. 

We had with us all that was necessary for a camp. 
Our tents were made of the coarse cotton cloth manu- 
factured by the people, and for beds we had soft tanned 
leather mats. For myself, I had bought a splendid rug, 
made by the Moors, exceedingly soft, the material of 
which was young calves' skins. 

One splendid morning, immediately after our Moham- 
medan priest had recited his prayers, we set out, and I 
must say that there was something very picturesque in 
our departure. The men all wore broad-brimmed hats 
and loose barbaric costumes; some were mounted on 
small, hardy donkeys, others on horses, and a very few 
on camels. Other beasts were loaded with provisions 
and goods which were to be taken to the Moors. 

My camel was made to kneel down by his master to 



208 MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

enable me to climb upon his back. I was told that he 
was very gentle and docile. I must have looked queer 
enough with that immense straw hat on my head, my 
double-barreled gun over my shoulder, my pistols hang- 
ing by my side, and a huge hunting-knife, as sharp al- 
most as a razor, the bright steel of which shone splen- 
didly as the rays of the sun struck upon it. 

A camel-saddle is a queer-looking affair, and as for 
the riding, I must say I did not like the camel's jolting 
gait very much. 

Our road lay along the barren and shadeless sea-shore, 
and gradually the sun reminded me that the day was ad- 
vancing, and that it was getting hot. The glare on the 
white sand and the reflection from the sea were very 
painful to the eyes, and I did not wonder that ophthalmy 
was so prevalent among the people there. It became 
positively unbearable as the day wore on, in despite of 
my big broad-brimmed hat, and at length I put over my 
face a very thick green veil with which I had happily 
provided myself, and for which I was very thankful. 
After riding some time I began to feel a queer sensation 
in my stomach. The long, swinging strides of my camel, 
to which, of course, I was not accustomed, did not seem 
to agree with me, and I was beginning to feel symptoms 
of sea-sickness. " What," said I to myself, " sea-sick on 
the back of a camel ?" There was no mistake about it. 
It was a kind of camel-sickness. The men had a good 
laugh at me ; but I tried to fight it down, and after a 
while succeeded, just as I was on the point of giving up 
friend camel and betaking myself to the back of a high- 
spirited donkey, on which I had fixed my eyes before we 
started. He was a beauty of his kind ; but I was told 



DIGGING WELLS IN THE SAND. 209 

that he was a very obstinate creature when he took it 
into his head to be so. After all, I did not find that my 
camel was such a gentle and docile animal as I had been 
told. I thought it was pretty obstinate. 

By noon the air became very hot, and the sand was so 
scorching that it would have been no fun to walk through 
it barefooted. We were going very slowly, and toward 
four o'clock we thought we would pitch our tents and 
encamp for the night. A spot by the sea-shore was 
chosen for a site, and then the people began to busy 
themselves in digging holes in the sand about high- water 
mark. I did not know at first what they were doing 
this for, but soon discovered that they were digging 
wells. These were six or seven feet in diameter, and, as 
the sand was very loose, the workmen were constantly 
hindered by the caving in of the sides ; but, in spite of 
this drawback, the wells in a short time were completed 
to a depth of about six feet, when water began to show 
itself, as they had dug below the level of the sea. In 
two wells the water was brackish, while in two others it 
tasted quite fresh and sweet. We kept one for ourselves, 
and made the approach to the other accessible for our 
beasts. The poor creatures, suffering from thirst, came 
and drank so greedily that twice they had to be driven 
back to let the water come in again, they having com- 
pletely emptied the well. 

These rude wells are very useful, and, if properly pro- 
tected by iron tubes, would be of immense benefit. This 
manner of digging wells is the usual method of getting 
water by the sea-shore. 

Mohammedans are always very devout, and a little be- 
fore sunset all the people became quiet, and listened rev- 



210 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

erently while the marabout prayed aloud. Afterward 
they seated themselves cross-legged on the sand, with 
their faces turned toward the setting sun, saying their 
evening prayer to Allah, whose sole prophet they be- 
lieved to be Mohammed. Then the camels and other 
animals, so tethered as to prevent their straying far from 
camp, were turned loose to graze on the scanty herbage 
that grew here and there along the shore. The evening 
meal was eaten with good appetite, and after this im- 
portant duty was dispatched I took a solitary stroll along 
the beach to watch the camels feeding. As I observed 
these faithful, patient, and docile creatures, I could not 
help thinking how bountiful and wonderful is Nature in 
providing for man's wants in the different countries of 
the world. Every where animals are found adapted for 
the mode of life required according to the formation and 
climate of the country. In desert and arid lands, where 
food is scarce, and even water is far from being abun- 
dant, the camel is found, and proves to be the best friend 
of man. Not only can this animal go several days with- 
out drinking as it crosses the great Sahara, but the milk 
of the female camel furnishes her master with drink. 
Many a wanderer's life has been saved in that manner. 
As for food, the camel will be satisfied with the parched 
grass, the scraggy vines, or the dry branches of the stunt- 
ed trees found in the desert, or a few handfuls of grain 
or dry dates. I do not wonder that the natives love their 
camels, for what would they do in that desert country 
without them ? 

How is it that the camel, unlike other animals, can go 
so long a time without drinking water ? I will tell you. 
In its stomach are a great number of deep cells into 



HOW THE CAMEL KEEPS WATER. 



211 



which the water passes when the camel drinks, and is 
then prevented from escaping by a muscle which closes 
the mouth of the cells. When the camel feels thirsty, 
it' has the power of using some of this reserved store 
of water. The natives say that when a camel has been 
accustomed to a certain route, he knows exactly how 
long to keep this supply of water to make it last from 
one well or spring to another. Hence there is some- 
times danger of a camel's suffering from thirst, and 
even dying, if a long journey is to be performed over a 
route with which he is unacquainted. The camel's feet 
are broad, and so constructed that they present a broad 
surface to the desert sands, to prevent his sinking into it 
too deeply. Their knees are hard and horny, from the 
habit of kneeling down to be loaded and unloaded. 

The Moors come frequently down to the banks of the 
Senegal River with an imposing array of camels, loaded 
with gum arabic. The sight of one of these caravans is 
curious and picturesque, as may be seen by the illustra- 
tion on another page. 




CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PART WITH THE CAEAVAN. A NEW CAMP. DISCOVER OS- 
TRICH TRACKS. AN OSTRICH'S NEST. AN OMELETTE. — « 

CHASING OSTRICHES ON HORSEBACK. 1 AM UNSUCCESSFUL. 

LARGE NUMBER OF SEA-SHELLS IN THE DESERT. 

When I came out of my tent early the next morning, 
I saw the Mohammedans scattered all over the sand 
round our encampment, with their faces turned toward 
the rising sun, saying their morning prayers before the 
start. Then the camels and asses were milked, they were 
fed with grain, and then led to the wells to drink. Break- 
fast over, then we started on our way again. That day 
I was to be left by the caravan, for they did not wish to 
take me farther, on account of the unsafe condition of 
tfee country northward. The plundering Moors were 
roving about in strong bands, and frequently attacked 
caravans after dark. 

I was overjoyed to find evidences that ostriches had 
been in the region through which we passed. This as- 
sured me that there was to be good sport in the Sahara, 
and not far from the sea. 

Late in the afternoon I took leave of the caravan. 
Several donkeys and a fleet horse were left for my use. 
After many a good-by we parted, and I remained with 
a fe^ splendid Jaloffs for companions. We built our 
camp near a scrubby grove, and dug a well, finding pret- 
ty good water at a depth of six feet. During the night 



0STB1CHES ABE AM T7ND. 213 

we kept a very careful watch lest the plunderers of the 
desert should surprise us. The Moors might capture and 
make me a slave — I, who love to be free ! What should 
I do if I was to lose my freedom? I shudder at the 
thought ! I would rather die, I said to myself, than suf- 
fer such a terrible fate ; and then the story of the poor 
wretched men who had been taken captives on the coast, 
which I have told you in a former chapter, came into 
my mind. You will not be surprised to learn that I 
slept but little that night. Fortunately, nothing happen- 
ed to disturb us. 

In the morning, after a hearty breakfast, I began 
hunting on the country back of the spot where we had 
encamped. I had to be very careful, and keep a sharp 
lookout, as sometimes lions were found in these regions. 
I was after ostriches, and had not gone far from our camp 
with my four companions, when we discovered fresh 
tracks, which must have been made by these singular 
birds but a short time before. Among the scanty shrubs 
thereabout were some creeping vines, which bore a kind 
of fruit upon which the ostriches had been feeding. I 
was on the alert, but the ground was flat, and there was 
little probability of my getting near the birds, as they 
could see me, and run away. Their swiftness is almost 
incredible, for they have most extraordinary muscular 
power in their legs, and, though they can not soar into 
the air, their wings assist them wonderfully in their flight. 

I could not understand at first how these ostriches 
had strayed into this region, and finally concluded that 
they must have been driven from the north by hunters, 
and had taken refuge here. But there was no mistake 
about it ; my guide said the footprints were really made 



214 -MT APING I KINOD OM. 

by ostriches. I therefore continued my chase till I came 
unawares upon an ostrich nest, which was a piece of 
very good fortune for me. It was not built of straw 
nor dead branches, but was simply a hole scooped out in 
the sand by the mother bird. I was glad to observe that 
there were five in the nest, which, if they were fresh, 
would make a fine omelette. Satisfied with our good 
luck, and considerably tired with the long tramp over 
the sandy plain, we concluded to return to camp with 
our five eggs. They were quite a nice little load. 

Our camp was somewhat sheltered from the fresh sea- 
breeze by a little sand-hillock heaped together by the ac- 
tion of the wind. The broad Atlantic was before us, 
and the waves came dashing heavily on the beach. In 
the evening the sky was clear, and the stars shone out 
most beautifully. We had no matting, our bed being 
nothing but the white desert sand, and a very nice and 
comfortable bed it made, I can assure you. 

When we were comfortably settled, I said to Mokar 
Sidi, " Bring us the frying-pan. I must have an ome- 
lette made of an ostrich egg. v But what a big omelette 
it was going to be, for the capacity of an ostrich egg is 
about thirty times that of a hen's egg. I wondered if 
the omelette would be good. One thing was certain, the 
egg was newly laid. We had with us a large quantity 
of butter, which was carefully kept in a leather bag. I 
had my frying-pan — a large tin plate — and was ready 
to begin. 

The shell of the ostrich egg was rather thick, and it 
required two or three good blows with my hunting-knife 
to break it. The contents of the egg half filled quite a 
large dish. I beat it with my fork for a long time, till 



MAKING AN OMELETTE. 215 

the yellow and the white were thoroughly mixed. Then 
I put the pan on the bright fire we had built with pieces 
of wood collected from the shrubs around our camp. I 
melted about a pound of butter, and, while it was very 
hot, mixed the egg and the butter thoroughly with a 
spoon. With the addition of salt and pepper, the ome- 
lette was soon ready, and such an omelette as it was ! It 
would have done you good to see it. I am sure it would 
have given you a keen appetite. It looked and tasted 
very much like an ordinary omelette. It was somewhat 
coarser in flavor, but nourishing ; and, as it was the first 
time in my life I tasted of an ostrich-egg omelette, I rel 
ished it very much. Most of my fellows made their sup- 
per on couscous, a kind of millet, but some of them had 
a dish of pounded grasshoppers. Among the children 
of the desert this is considered a great dainty, and I was 
told the Moors are also very fond of it. 

As I wished to carry home the rest of the eggs, I 
made a hole in one end of each, through which I emptied 
the contents. The natives sometimes use these egg-shells 
to hold water, or cut them up into spoons, dishes, cups, 
and other articles of household convenience. One of 
these eggs will hold about three pints. 

The following day, before sunrise, while walking near 
the camp, I spied two ostriches in the distance, too far 
off to be conscious of my presence. I went back into 
my tent as quickly as I could, and saddled and mounted 
my horse, and started quietly in pursuit, taking every ad- 
vantage of the ground as I advanced, in order not to be 
seen by the game. 

I felt somewhat anxious about my riding qualities, for 
I knew I was not at all a good horseman, but I had the 



216 



MY APINGI KINGDOM. 



consolation of knowing that if I fell off it would be 
upon the soft sand, for there were no rocks on which I 
should break my head. After this reflection, I started 
on a tremendous gallop after the ostriches. My little 
horse went on splendidly, and we gained rapidly on 
them. There was a fair prospect, I thought, for me to 
bag one, when, just as I was ready to cock my gun, 
down I fell at full length on the sand ! My gun pitch- 




AN OSTRICH HUNT. 



ed a long way ahead of me, and my mouth was filled up 
with sand. I gathered myself up, and, finding that there 
were no bones broken, picked up my gun and started in 
pursuit of my horse. He was a gentle and well-trained 
animal, and suffered himself to be caught without diffi- 
culty. 

The game, by that time, were far away, and I return- 



SEA- SHELLS IN THE DESERT. 217 

ed to the camp, promising myself not to go after ostrich- 
es on horseback again, or, at any rate, not before I had 
a little more practice in riding. 

The ostrich does not run so fast as people generally 
suppose ; at least they can not run a long distance, and a 
horse can easily overtake them, in spite of their legs and 
wings. The natives say they can kick tremendously, 
and that dogs are often killed in that way, as the power- 
ful sharp claw wMi which the foot is armed can make 
fearful wounds. 

The male is a splendid bird ; the lower part of the 
neck and the body is of a beautiful shiny black, and the 
plumes of the wing and tail are white. The female is 
of a grayish-brown, color, sprinkled with white, and her 
tail and wing-plumes are clear white. The male pos- 
sesses the finest feathers. They are from six to eight 
feet in height, and the body weighs probably from two 
to three hundred pounds. 

I returned to camp somewhat crestfallen in regard to 
riding. The least agreeable part of all had been that I 
got my mouth full of sand, and could not get rid of it 
till I came back to the camp, where I could rinse it out 
with water. 

I was surprised at the number of sea-shells scattered 
about in the sands of the desert, showing conclusively to 
my mind that once this barren and scorching expanse 
had been covered by a sea. As the level of the desert is 
not much above that of the ocean, I feel certain that if 
wells were dug all over the desert, and protected with iron 
tubes to prevent the sands from falling in, water could 
be easily supplied to caravans and bands of travelers in 
their journeys across that terrible expanse of territory. 

& 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

A SAND-STORM PREDICTED. THE WIND FROM THE NORTH- 
EAST. THE STORM. AFTER OSTRICHES. TWO ARE EXLL- 

ED.-^-RETURN TO CAMP. ROAST OSTRICH FOR SUPPER. 

RETURN TO THE SETTLEMENT. 

On my return to the camp the men said we were 
going to have a storm from the desert. They could tell 
it was coming, and they hoped it would not last long, for 
these storms are very unpleasant. They did not mean a 
storm of rain, but that a strong wind would blow from 
the east or northeast, and, in passing over the Great Des- 
ert, would raise clouds and columns of sand, so that the 
atmosphere would be thick with it, as if a fog had spread 
itself over the country. 

I may say I was glad to hear this. Like you, my dear 
young folks, I had heard before of these sand-storms, 
and that the sand would even be carried far away out to 
sea and fall on the decks of ships. I wanted to see one 
of these awful storms, which are said to be so violent in 
the Great Desert that men, and sometimes caravans, are 
buried alive beneath the immense masses of sand. 

The men were not mistaken. The wind, which had 
been blowing lightly in an east-northeast direction, began 
to increase gradually, till at last it blew a perfect gale. 
The sand began to fly, and the storm increased still more. 
The air soon became murky with sand, which flew to- 



IT BLOWS HARD. 



219 




Tfc 



SAND-STORM IN THE DBSEET. 



ward the sea like a thick fog. It was a grand and splen- 
did sight. The light of the day had become quite dim, 
because the sun's rays could hardly pierce the clouds of 
sand. It continued blowing for several hours. The wind 
was hot ; my lips became parched and my eyes sore, as, 
in spite of my thick veil, the sand penetrated every where. 
Now that I had seen a genuine sand-storm, I hoped that 
the wind would moderate. Little hillocks and mounds 
were formed here and there, and our wells were filled up 
with the drifting sand. 

The sand got into my clothes through every opening 
in them. It filled my hair, my nose, my ears, and even 
my mouth. It covered every thing in our camp, and 
completely spoiled our food. But we had to eat it as it 
was, as there was no choice. 



220 MY APINGI KINGJD OM. 

Toward evening the wind gradually calmed down, and 
by the time the sun had set below the horizon nature be- 
came quiet again. The sand-storm of the desert was 
over, and I was glad I had seen it. 

The next morning I again prepared myself to hunt 
the ostrich. Some of them had been seen the day be- 
fore by some of the men who had wandered off a little 
way into the desert. It was but seldom that ostriches 
were seen where we were, and I wished to take advant- 
age of the opportunity, the more so that I should have 
to turn back very soon and leave the Senegal region for 
the Gulf of Guinea. 

But first we moved our camp a few miles northward 
from where we were, because better wells of water could 
be got in that locality. As soon as our tents were pitched 
again, I started once more on an ostrich hunt, taking two 
guides with me. 

Our course lay through the desert near the sea-shore. 
It was exceedingly tiresome walking, for at every step 
w T e made our feet would go deep into the sand, and the 
heat was intense. We had to take every advantage of 
the ground in order to hide ourselves from sight, for the 
ostriches, as you know, were very shy, and, though I had 
been more than three hours on the way, and was assured 
by my two guides that I should see some, I was yet to 
discover the first one. I did not expect to see their 
tracks, as the storm of the day before had obliterated 
every trace of them. 

Yet I had good reason to look for fine sport, for this 
was the time — just at the close of May, and before the 
setting in of the rainy season — when the ostriches are 
accustomed to visit the sea-shore in great numbers. The 



GOING AFTER OSTRICHES. 221 

natives say they wade into the sea during the heat of the 
day, and splash round in the water at a great rate. This, 
as you may suppose, is the best time of the year to shoot 
them. 

Al] at once, as I reached the top of a sand-down or 
hill, I looked carefully over the crest to see if I could 
discern any signs of game, and, to my great delight,! saw 
several ostriches near the sea-shore, and not far from 
where I was posted. I instantly stopped, and stood still 
for an instant to observe them. I had never seen them 
in their wild state till the day previous, and was very 
much interested in watching their movements as they 
were strutting about on the shore. 

After satisfying my curiosity, 1 crept toward them 
with all the caution I could use. They were unaware 
of my presence, and seemed to be perfectly unconcerned 
about every thing around them ; but, knowing how keen 
their scent was, I advanced cautiously and slowly, reserv- 
ing my fire until I came within very short range. If 
you had been with me you would have become, I am 
sure, quite as much excited as I was, and you would have 
enjoyed the chase. 

At last I came to a gap between two sand-hills, which 
put me in great anxiety, as there was danger of my being 
discovered by the ostriches in crossing, and if I should 
be, good-by to my hopes ! The gap was about forty 
yards wide, and I must cross it in the quickest and most 
sly manner. So, protected behind a little hillock of 
sand, I watched carefully for a chance to scud across. 
My eyes were riveted on the ostriches, and I waited for a 
time till they should all look toward the sea or go into the 
surf, so that I could shift my position without being seen, 



222 



MY APINGI KINOD OM. 




AFTBK OSTRICHES. 



and gain a hillock that stood within easy range of my 
beautiful game. At last a good chance came ; they all 
clustered together and turned their backs toward me, 
looking in the opposite direction. I seized the opportu- 
nity, and crossed over the open space in a jiffy, never let- 
ting my eyes lose sight of the ostriches, so that if they 
had suddenly looked back I should have thrown myself 
flat in the sand and lain as still as a log or a stone. 
Using all this caution, I crossed in safety, and, on reach- 
ing the other shelter, drew a long breath of relief. I 
was within range of the ostriches at last, and sure of my 



same. 



I rested several seconds in order to get breath to calm 
my nerves, so that I might take good aim and make a 
dead shot. Then I slowly raised my gun, took a steady 



SAIL FOR THE GULF OF GUINEA. 223 

aim at the male, who led the flock, and pulled the trig- 
ger. Bang ! down came the male ostrich. Bang again ! 
and down came another. The three others that remain- 
ed alive fled with very great swiftness. This was great 
sport. I had been entirely successful. I gave a wild 
shout of joy, and my two friends, who had remained be- 
hind, and were watching my movements, ran toward me 
as fast as they could. I sent one of them back to the 
camp to fetch the other men to assist in carrying the 
game. The beautiful feathers were pulled out, the os- 
triches were cut into small pieces, and then, singing 
songs of triumph, we returned to camp. That evening 
we had a splendid supper of roast ostrich. 

The next day I thought it was time to go back, for 
the vessel was soon to be ready to sail, and I must reluc- 
tantly say good-by to the Great Desert. So we raised 
our camp, loaded our donkeys, and departed on our home- 
ward way. It was with a feeling of sorrow that I said 
good-by to these desert and sandy shores, where I had 
really enjoyed myself, and learned something that I did 
not know before. 

A few days after my return to the settlement of St. 
Louis we weighed anchor and sailed for the Gulf of 
Guinea. 



&Zjg®£&_ 




CHAPTER XXX. 

A PLEASANT VOYAGE. IN SIGHT OF THE CAMEROONS. THE 

ISLAND OF FERNANDO PO. SHARKS. THE PILOT-FISH. 

WHAT THEY DO. HOOKING OF A BIG SHARK. — ITS STRUG- 
GLES. ITS DEATH. 

For a few days after getting under way we had a 
light breeze, and then sailed into the region of calms, 
where vessels are sometimes detained for weeks for want 
of wind enough to fill their canvas. We were not so 
unfortunate, however, and thirty-eight days after our de- 
parture from Senegal our ship was plowing through the 
water finely. We had a nice breeze, all our sails were 
set, and the studding-sails were out. As I looked back 
one morning, I could see our wake for a long distance. 
The sun had risen half an hour before, and the deck had 
just been washed. I was enjoying the coolness of a 
morning at sea under the tropics. The captain was 
smoking a pipe as hard as he could. I could see that he 
was nervous and excited. The fact was that he had been 
expecting to see the land at sunrise, and had been disap- 
pointed. He concluded that the strong currents had 
thrown us northward. 

One man had been sent to the top of the mainmast to 
watch for the land, for of course he could see it from 
such a height long before those who were on deck. 

The captain and I were talking of the strength of the 



LOOKING FOR THE LAND. 225 

currents, and wondering how far we might be out of our 
course, when suddenly the cry of " Land ahead ! land 
ahead !" came down to us from the man on the watch at 
the top of the mainmast. Immediately the captain and I 
took our spy -glasses and ascended the rigging, though I 
was satisfied not to go as high as the captain. The fact 
was that I did not care to go higher up, not being much 
of a sailor, and not knowing how I should like it up 
there, or how I should keep my footing. I had no idea 
of trying, for I knew that if I did not succeed I should 
have a terrible fall. While I was thinking of these 
things, the captain looked down and said to me, " Do not 
go up higher." I was only too ready to obey. After 
looking a while through my glass, I shouted to him, 
" Land ahead ! land ahead !" The captain said, " Where ?" 
I pointed toward the land, and said, " Don't you see it 
there?" I could not be mistaken. What I saw could 
not be a cloud, though it looked very much like one, so 
faint and very far away. All I could see above the sea 
was an indistinct bluish mass, having the appearance of 
a cloud or bank of mist; but there was a hazy atmos- 
phere about it which looked very much as if it were 
land. As we came near it became more substantial, 
and at last the blue outlines of the great peak of Came- 
roons w T ere seen. What a grand sight it presented ! ap- 
parently rising like an island from the sea, for the coun- 
try that surrounds it is low and marshy, and the peak, 
which rises to a height of thirteen thousand feet above 
the sea, is visible for several hours before the low lands 
above which it towers come into sight. 

I wondered if this Peak of Cameroons was the same 
land which Hanno, the great Carthaginian admiral, men- 

K2 



226 MY APINGI KINGDOM. 

tions in the Periplus, where he says : " We discovered, at 
night, a country full of fire. In the middle was a lofty 
fire, larger than all the rest, which seemed to touch the 
stars. When day came we discovered it to be a large 
hill, called Teonochema, the Chariot of the Gods." 

The Cameroons Mountains, being of volcanic origin, 
would seem to corroborate this theory. Extinct craters 
are to be seen there which must have been for ages in a 
state of repose, and there is no other spot on the West 
Coast where remains of volcanoes can be seen. 

Hanno, if you remember well, mentions also the go- 
rilla in the same book. 

At a distance the Cameroons seems to rise abruptly 
from its base by a continuous slope ; but, on nearer ap- 
proach, it is seen to consist of a succession of hills and 
valleys, covered with alternating forest and pasture land. 
Perhaps one third is covered with dense forest, while the 
summit is bare. 

After a few hours the island of Fernando Po, whose 
peaks rise to a height of more than ten thousand feet, 
was in sight, and we could see, at the same time, the two 
highest points found on the West Coast of Africa, for 
Fernando is only about twenty miles from the main land. 
It is situated in the very Bight of Biafra, which is the 
extreme end of the Gulf of Guinea. One of the afflu 
ents of the great Piver Niger here falls into the sea. 

While our vessel was heading for Fernando Po, I was 
seated near the rudder, looking now and then at the high 
land of which I have just spoken, when suddenly I saw 
the fins of a large shark in the water. By their size it 
must have been an enormous creature. It seemed to be 
hunting after fish, as it swam pretty fast. No doubt the 



WATCHING THE SHARK. 227 

shark was hungry. I threw something heavy in the wa- 
ter, which made a good deal of splashing, to attract its 
attention. I was not mistaken. The huge fish made for 
the vessel, swam round it, though we were sailing fast, 
and then came back to the stern, and followed us close- 
ly. Sometimes it almost seemed as if it touched the 
rudder. What a huge creature it was ! how ugly, how 
voracious ! Its little eyes seemed to see every thing ; but 
its mouth could not be seen, for it is placed in such a 
way that it can only be seen when the shark turns over. 
I wondered how many rows of teeth the creature could 
have, and a cold shudder ran over me; for just at that 
time I had seated myself on the bulwarks of the vessel, 
and the least jerk might have sent me over into the sea, 
and, as the shark was swimming close to the vessel, there 
would have been no way of escape. I immediately jump- 
ed down on deck and looked at the creature. I do not 
wonder that the natives often call it the " leopard of the 
sea," for such a voracious creature seldom can be met 
any where. You may perhaps remember that in "Lost 
in the Jungle" there is an eagle called by the people 
" the leopard of the air" on account of its fierceness and 
boldness. The water has its representative for voracity, 
fierceness, and treachery in the shark, and the land has 
the leopard, which, as the natives say, can not be trusted. 
As I was looking at that shark, I saw eight little fish 
swimming round it, on which the shark seemed to look 
complacently. At first I wondered why the shark did 
not gobble them up as he would other fish. Now these 
little tiny things would seem to rest on the back of their 
huge companion, then they would swim under its belly 
and round him. As I watched these little creatures, I 



228 MY APINGI KINGDOM. 

was filled with wonder because they swam so fast. They 
seemed to be his best friends, and, as I learned, are called 
the shark's pilots, and follow him every where. Only 
large sharks have pilots. Wherever the shark goes his 
"little pilots" follow him. I believe they sometimes 
tell him of danger, for the great enemy of the shark is 
the " sawfish." At any rate, they never leave the shark, 
and it may be that they help to keep its skin clear from 
insects and parasites. I went to my stateroom, and took 
from a box two or three very small fish-hooks, which I 
tied to a thread, and then put a very small piece of fat 
pork on the hook, and dropped it in the water, but the 
little pilots would not bite. 

At times I fancied the old big shark was looking at 
me, hoping all the time that I would come down into 
the water, when he would have made a jolly meal of me. 

At last I gave up trying to catch the little pilot-fish. 
It is not often that I give up, but I saw that in this case 
it was of no use, for it did not even come and smell of 
my bait. Whatever little things I would throw over, 
such as crusts of bread, little pieces of chicken-meat, 
etc., they would not trouble themselves in the least about ; 
so I came to the conclusion that they fed themselves on 
the parasites of the shark. 

Just as I was thinking of catching the big shark, the 
bell for dinner rang, and I went down into the cabin in 
a hurry, for I was very hungry. A piece of salt pork 
and some beans was all we had for our dinner. I con- 
fess I should have willingly exchanged the salt pork for 
something else, for we had had so much of it. 

After dinner I went immediately on deck again, and 
saw that the shark was still following the vessel. The 



THE SHARK IS CAUGHT. 



229 



sailor at the wheel whispered to me, in a very low tone, 
that one of the crew was sick, and that he had no doubt 
that the shark was w T aiting for him to die ; " for," added 
the sailor, " those horrid creatures smell sickness on 
board, and I have seen them follow a ship day after day 
till the man died and his body was buried in the sea." 
Almost every sailor believes what this man just told me, 
and that it is always a bad sign to see a shark follow 
after a' sick man. I said, " Nonsense ; I do not believe a 
word about it. You sailors are full of superstitions. At 
any rate, I am going to try to hook the ' fellow,' so that 
it shall be his last day in the sea." We had on board the 
vessel two large fish-hooks, which I had got specially for 
shark fishing. These big hooks were held by a chain 
about eighteen inches long, for a rope would have stood 
a poor chance against several rows of teeth. 

As I was preparing my hook and was ready to put on 
it a piece of pork which weighed about one pound, the 
captain came and helped me. We attached to the chain 
a new, strong rope, for the shark w T as a big one, and we 
secured it to the deck. The vessel was not going at that 
time more than three miles an hour, for the breeze had 
become light ; but we were going fast enough. The 
hook, with its piece of pork as a bait, had hardly dropped 
into the water, when the shark came at it, and suddenly 
turned over on its back, and showed a tremendous mouth, 
which it opened, and swallowed pork, fish-hook, and part 
of the chain. We gave a sudden jerk to our line, and 
the hook fastened itself tightly inside the jaw of Master 
Shark. Then came a great struggle to haul him up, es- 
pecially when we got him out of the water and against 
the ship's side. The crew had to be called to assist us 



230 



MY APINGI KINGDOM. 



before we succeeded in landing him on the deck. It 
was all that eight men could do to pull him up. Now 
and then his powerful tail would strike with terrific force 
against the sides of the ship ; the water was lashed into 
foam, and was soon discolored with blood from the 
wound made by the hook. At last we succeeded in 
drawing it out of the water, and the little pilot-fish swam 
about at random, not knowing where their protector and 
friend had disappeared. Then came the hardest part of 
the work, for the shark made a tremendous struggle, 
having no idea of being hauled on deck. Nevertheless, 
in spite of its desperate efforts, we succeeded. As soon 
as the huge creature fell on the deck we jumped out of 
its reach, for a single blow from its tail would have bro- 
ken a man's leg. Now and then the shark would remain 




CAPTURE OF A SHAKK. 



THE DEATH OF A SHARK. 231 

still a moment, then a quiver would follow, and the body 
would flop and twist till the strength of the monster ap- 
peared to be exhausted. 

Finally it lay quite still. Having armed myself with 
a big axe belonging to the carpenter of the ship, I cut 
off the shark's tail with one blow. It was a monstrous 
shark. One of the sailors gave him a fearful blow on 
the head which almost split it in two. Even this rough 
treatment did not kill him, and it was still dangerous to 
approach within his reach. At length a powerful blow 
with an axe on the spine cut the monster in two and fin- 
ished him, though the fragments of the body quivered 
for some time afterward. 

This shark belonged to the most voracious species ; it 
had a flat head, a big and very ugly-looking mouth, with 
several rows of teeth which looked like those of a wood- 
saw. 

We had hardly killed this fellow than seven others 
appeared and followed in the wake of the ship. I threw 
overboard some pieces of the shark we had killed, upon 
which they threw themselves voraciously and gobbled 
them up. So they were cannibals, if we may use the 
expression, and, as the negroes say, they eat " their own 
people." They kept following the ship as if expecting 
that something more would be thrown over to them. 

The thought came to my mind how dreadful it would 
be if one of the sailors should fall into the sea. It would 
be sure death to him, for the sharks would pounce upon 
him as the hungry and voracious hyena pounces upon a 
dead carcass. The captain seemed to have the same feel- 
ing, and, though such an accident hardly ever happens, 
he warned the men to look out sharp and be careful. 

I was bound to kill these seven sharks if I could, for 



232 MY APINGI KINQD OM. 

if I succeeded there would be, I thought, seven monsters 
less in the sea — seven creatures that would never again 
make a meal of a man. So the two hooks were again 
put out with big pieces of pork upon them. They hardly 
touched the water when two sharks were caught, and, 
after a great struggle, but not so severe as that with the 
one we had just captured, they were hauled up half way, 
and then I put a bullet through the head of each, cut 
their tails off, and then let their bodies drop into the 
water ; the five that remained pounced upon them with 
a fury and a voracity which astonished me. Of course, 
the sharks could not swim, their tails having been cut off, 
though they seemed to try. They sank gradually, the 
fvve sharks sinking with them into the depths of the 
ocean, to devour them. I did not count on that. It 
never entered my head that these would follow the dis- 
abled and half dead sharks in this manner. 

Half an hour after another immense fellow made its 
appearance. We were decidedly in a great region of 
sharks. This fellow was a blue-skinned shark, long, and 
of slender proportions. The baited hook was thrown 
over to him, and he approached it slowly and with great 
caution, smelling at it three or four times, and as often 
rejecting it. He was certainly not very hungry; but at 
last he swallowed the bait and was caught. We had 
great work to bring him on deck. This monster was 
fourteen feet long, and you may judge my astonishment 
when I found that his stomach was filled with fish, some 
of which were still alive, and the captain had them 
broiled for his dinner. In the mean time w^e w T ere get- 
ting nearer to the island of Fernando Po, and by sunset 
we were safely anchored in Clarence Bay, within twenty 
or thirty yards of the shore. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE BOOBEES. CAMP BY THE SEA. WE SPY A CANOE. 

- — FUGITIVES FROM SLAVERY. THE STORY OF THEIR 

CAPTIVITY. THEIR FLIGHT. 

The next morning when I went on deck, the beautiful 
island rose before me in all its picturesque charms. Not 
a cloud hung over its high summit. The hills were cov- 
ered with dense forest to their very tops, and from their 
gentle declivities numberless little rivulets ran sparkling 
down to the sea. The island is very beautiful to the eye, 
but very unhealthy for a residence. 

There was at that time on the island a settlement of 
negroes captured from slavers, called Freetown, where 
several missionaries lived who had undertaken the care 
of the benighted people. The village was pretty and 
quite clean. Fruit-trees had been planted about the 
houses, and the little settlement appeared to be very 
thrifty. The island seemed to be under English rule, 
though belonging to Spain. A good, kind Hollander, 
who had been many years on the island, was the virtual 
governor. 

Two or three days after my arrival, as I was rambling 
among the valleys and hills of the island, shooting birds 
and other small game (for, of course, there were no ele- 
phants nor leopards to be found, no hippopotami, etc., 
etc., there), I came across several settlements of the prim- 



234 MY APINGI KINGD OM. 

itive inhabitants. These natives are called Boobees, and 
are, no doubt, the remnants of a powerful tribe which 
once inhabited the island. Strange to say, these Boobees 
are unlike the negroes of the main land, being far more 
ugly and degraded. They were accustomed to rub their 
bodies with clay and palm-oil mixed together, and many 
had a curious way of arranging their hair in plaits, each 
of which was stuck together with the same disgusting 
mixture in the shape of cigars. Some of them seemed to 
have hundreds of these cigar-shaped plaits or braids on 
their heads, sticking out on all sides like the quills on a 
porcupine. 

Our camping-ground was situated in a nice little nook 
on the shore of one of those charming miniature bays 
which are found now and then along the coast of Fer- 
nando Po. Close beside it ran a beautiful little rivulet, 
the waters of which were as clear as crystal, and so cool 
that one might have been tempted to think that it came 
from some snowy peak. This little stream, indeed, rose 
in the mountains, and had meandered on its way to the 
sea through the dark forests of the island. Before us 
lav the sea. On the beach were two small canoes for 
fishing. 

One morning when I returned from a hunt, in which 
I had succeeded in killing several squirrels, which were 
to be roasted that day on sticks, before a bright fire, for 
my dinner, and had stretched myself out on the sand un- 
der the protecting shade of some huge cotton-trees, I was 
looking at the water, and thinking that I would like, 
after a while, to go a-fishing. There was a lazy feeling in 
the atmosphere, and my men were taking their afternoon 
nap not far from where I was lying. I had been lying 



THE CANOE IS GETTING NEARER. 235 

on the ground for about an hour, I suppose, when my 
attention was suddenly drawn to a black spot in the 
offing. What could it be ? It was so far off that I took 
my spy-glass to examine it, and then discovered it was a 
small canoe, with a sail made of matting. 

The little black spot grew bigger and bigger, for the 
wind was strong and from the sea. By the way the ca- 
noe sailed, I could see that the people wanted to make 
for the island. I wondered where the- canoe could 
come from, and my curiosity was much excited ; so I 
kept watching it as it came nearer and nearer, and aft-' 
er a while I could see that it contained five people. By 
the time it came within half a mile of the land, and was 
about that distance to the leeward of where our camp 
was, the breeze had gradually died away, and there was 
a dead calm. The canoe-men then took to their pad- 
dles, but, to my surprise, paddled very slowly. Examin- 
ing them carefully through my glass, I recognized dis- 
tinctly that there were four men and one woman in the 
canoe. They appeared to be emaciated, and, as they 
paddled very feebly, I concluded that they must be ei- 
ther sick or starving. Nevertheless, they were making 
headway. Who knows, said I to myself, but that it is a 
canoe belonging to the Boobees, which has been driven 
far out to sea by one of the fearful tornadoes which 
blow with such terrific force at this time of the year? 
I awoke my men, who immediately declared it was a 
canoe with fugitive slaves from Prince's or St. Thomas 
Island. 

My sympathies were at once fully aroused, and I said, 
" Boys, suppose we launch one of our canoes and go to 
meet them ?" " Eo," said my men ; " for we might 



236 MY A-PINGI KINOD OM. 

frighten them away." So I suggested that we should 
skirt the beach in the woods, and be near them when 
they landed. This was no sooner said than done, with 
all the more alacrity because the negroes forming my 
own camp were also fugitives from slavery. One of 
them, who had escaped from St. Thomas Island, and had 
lived on the banks of the Ogobai .River, had been sold 
into slavery by his people because suspected of being a 
wizard. He had been three years in the English settle- 
ment of Fernando Po, and could speak the English lan- 
guage tolerably well, besides the Portuguese. His name 
was Fasiko. 

We kept skirting the beach, taking good care to re- 
main in the woods, in order not to raise the suspicions of 
the fugitives. By the time we came opposite them they 
were not more than one hundred yards from the shore. 
Through my glass I could see how careworn they were. 
They seemed to be very suspicious and shy as they ap- 
proached the land, and I could see fear and anxiety on 
their faces. I w T as not surprised, for they had never seen 
the country, and knew not if the people were wicked and 
ready to kill them, or make slaves of them again. Now 
and then tney would stop their paddles, look around anx- 
iously, give two or three more strokes, then stop again, 
and look around. At last they landed, and appeared to 
be hardly able to walk. What a little bit of a canoe it 
was that they came in ! I wondered that they had not 
been swamped. 

After they had all landed, they looked carefully in 
every direction, while we kept ourselves hidden. Sud- 
denly they saw human footsteps on the beach, where Boo- 
bees had been walking, and a kind of panic seized them. 



WE BEING THEM TO THE CAMP. 237 

Poor people ! I felt sorry for them. At last my men 
came out of the forest, shouting to them not to be afraid ; 
but the shouts were of no avail. They took to their heels 
and ran away as fast as they could ; but, in their weak- 
ened condition, they were no match for us. We ran 
after them, and in a short time they were all captured. 
They immediately recognized friend Fasiko, however, 
who had lived on a neighboring plantation to theirs, and 
all at once their fears were allayed. 

We took them back to the camp, and gave them a 
good meal of boiled plantains. Two chickens I had 
brought for myself were cooked for them, and the broth 
seemed to do them good. They were very grateful to 
us, and, after they had eaten, they lay down to seek the 
rest and sleep of which they stood so sadly in need. 
They were negroes from the interior of Africa, as we 
knew without being told by their sharp - pointed teeth 
and tattooed bodies. 

Darkness had come, and we had given a fresh start to 
our fires, which were bright and cheerful, and our five 
runaway captives were lying by them with anxious looks, 
for they did not know what was to happen to them. Per- 
haps they thought I was one of the whites who bought 
slaves by the sea-shore, and that they were going to be 
re-enslaved. 

" I want to hear your story," said I. " I want to know 
how you dared to go to sea in such a small canoe, and 
why you were sold into slavery by your own people." 
The eldest of the iive rose from his reclining position, 
seated himself on the ground, and began to tell his story 
in Portuguese, which Fasiko translated into English. 

" All of us you see here," said the old man, " belong 



238 MY APINGI KINOD OM. 

to a tribe called Ishogos, living far away from that big 
water" (he pointed to the sea), " of which we had never 
heard before we came to it, as none of those who go 
away from our country and see the ocean ever come 
back to tell the tale of what they have seen, for many 
tribes are between the ocean and our land ; and, even if 
we escaped from the people of the coast, we should be 
enslaved by other tribes. A stranger in a strange land 
is not safe in the country of the black man." Here the 
man gave a sigh, and the others said, " Yo, yo, yo" which 
meant " That is so." 

" White man," he continued, " seest thou that woman? 
She lived in a village not far from mine. We grew up 
together. I saw her father and mother killed for witch- 
craft, and she saw my father and mother sold into slav- 
ery for the same cause ; and, if we had dared to cry, or 
say that our parents were not sorcerers, we should have 
been killed, and therefore we were obliged to join the 
crowd, and shout with the rest of the people, c Death to 
the wizards ! Death to those who bring disease and death 
among us !' For, white man, in the country of the Isho- 
gos, we all believe that people can become sorcerers; 
and if the people suspect that there are sorcerers in the 
village, we are afraid of each other, for we know not if 
our next neighbor does not wish to kill us. The father 
mistrusts his son, the son the father, the mother her chil- 
dren, the husband his wife, and the wife her husband, the 
uncle his nephew, and the nephew his uncle. Fear seizes 
every body, and there is no peace in the village till the 
sorcerers are found. 

" So the people mistrusted us as belonging to a family 
of aniembas (sorcerers), and, as our people wanted brass 



HOW THEY LEFT THEIR COUNTRY. 239 

rings, we were sold. In our country even mothers and 
fathers sell their own children, and our own family sold 
us into slavery. So one morning we left our village 
with a people called Apingi. They tied our hands be- 
hind our backs, and led us through the forest to their 
own country. This woman and I kept together. Oh 
how afraid we were of being separated ; for when we 
were young we loved each other, and I wanted her to be 
my wife; but another man gave her father one slave 
more than I could afford to give, and two goats, and 
she became his wife. 

"When we reached the Apingi village we saw three 
more Ishogos, and knew they too had been sold into slav- 
ery. This Apingi village was on the bank of a large 
river. After a few days the man who owned us sold us 
to another tribe called Aviia, living lower down on the 
banks of the river. A canoe took us there. Oh how 
frightened we became as we sailed in the little canoe ! 
Happily we were sold together again, but the three other 
Ishogos did not go with us, so we had to bid them good^ 
by. When night would come our new masters would 
leave people to watch us, and would put us in nchogo (a 
kind of stocks), and threatened us with death if we tried 
to escape. 

" The Aviia man who owned us, wanting to marry a 
girl of another village, gave us to her father in order to 
get her, for he had bought us especially for this object. 
The Apingi had bought us for four large copper rings, 
and this man had bought us for eight — such as women 
wear round their ankles. 

u We noticed, as we came down the river, that it got 
wider and deeper continually, and this filled our hearts 



240 MY APINOI EINGD OM. 

with fear. We were resold again, and traveled in the 
forest, and afterward came to the river again. In this 
manner we were sold from tribe to tribe living down the 
river, taking larger canoes as we came down, till, one 
morning, when we came out into the sea, the canoe began 
to rock, and Mishoumbi and I almost died with fright. 

"We then sailed along the coast till we came to the 
land of the Oroungous, who had bought us in the Nga- 
lois country. The next morning they took us to some 
people looking like you. They were white men. They 
looked at us, they touched us, they felt us all over, and 
opened our mouths. Then the Oroungous sold us to 
them. We were so .glad that Mishoumbi and I were sold 
together, for then we could talk together of Ishogo land — 
of our people. We knew that our country lay in the di- 
rection where the sun rose, and that we had come to the 
sea where the sun set. So every morning we would look 
toward the rising sum 

" A few days after we were resold to a white man, who 
sent us, before daylight, with many others, on board of 
a ship. It was quite dark. During the night we were 
put under the deck, and during the day we came out. 
There were on board many white men armed with guns 
and pistols, and the sight of them frightened us very 
much. All the men were kept together, and the women 
were apart, so I could only look at Mishoumbi, for we 
were not allowed to talk to any one. 

"We could see that we were going away from where 
the sun rises, and going toward where it sets — going 
away, away, far away from the good Ishogo country, 
where we were born, and where our fathers of old were 
born. Fear wao on the countenance of us all, for we 



THEY LAND IN ST. THOMAS. 241 

knew not what was to become of us. We knew not if 
the white men were not to kill and eat us. We were 
afraid of the water, for land was nowhere to be seen. 

" After two days and two nights we came in sight of an 
island. The land was as high as that of our Ishogo 
mountains. As we came near the land, canoes came 
alongside with white and black men on board, and took 
us all away, and landed us in the woods, where we slept, 
the people keeping guard over us. By-and-by some oth- 
er white men came and bought us by sixes, eights, or 
tens. I parted with Mishoumbi, as I thought, forever; 
but no one dared to cry, for we were afraid of being 
killed on the spot. 

" I was led, with seven others, to a plantation, and there 
I remained till I ran away, and it is there that I learned 
to speak Portuguese." 

" How is it," said I, " that Mishoumbi and your three 
Ishogos friends are with you to-day ?" 

" Wait," said he, " and I will tell you. The island we 
came from is called St. Thomas.* The name of the 
master to whom I belonged was Silva ; he was kind, and 
his plantation was by the sea. It had a great quantity 
of coffee-trees. , All his slaves were free, after work, to 
walk to and fro. After being accustomed to the coun- 
try, I began to visit round, and one day whom should I 
meet on a neighboring plantation but Mishoumbi — yes, 
Mishoumbi. She told me that our three Ishogos were 
living not far from her on another plantation, and from 
that time we saw each other very often. We would 
sometimes meet after our work was done, and talk of 

* St. Thomas is about 250 miles from the coast, r ind is situated directly 
under the equator, almost in a parallel line with the Oroungou country. 

L 



242 MY APING I KINGD OM. 

Ishogo land, and look in the direction where the sun 
rises, knowing that the land we left was there. Often 
we said to ourselves, ' Only two days took us to this isl- 
and ; how pleasant it would be if we could go back, and 
live in the woods, and be free.' 

"Then we began to talk all the time about running 
away, and very soon events occurred which helped us. 
My master wanted to teach me how to fish, and, after I 
had learned, I took a canoe every day and went out and 
fished. Of course I never went far from the land. Aft- 
er a while I became quite an expert canoeman. Dry 
seasons and rainy seasons passed away in that manner. 
One day I was ordered to make a big canoe from a tree 
that was in the forest, and, when the canoe was nearly 
finished, the idea came into my head of running away, 
and going again toward where the sun rises. When I 
told Mishoumbi of it, she said, ' Let us run away.' We 
swore to keep our plan a profound secret, and every 
evening, when we all met, we would say, ' Let us run 
away,' for the three Ishogos were to escape with us. 

" The canoe was finished, and I was to take it to the 
beach in front of my master's house within a few days. 
In the mean time I had made paddles and prepared a 
sail of matting ; and we collected food on the sly. One 
dark evening we all met in the woods, and, going down 
to the beach, launched the canoe, got into it, and pad- 
dled away from the island in the direction toward where 
the sun rises. The next morning we were far away, the 
land of St. Thomas appearing dimly in the horizon. The 
breeze bore us rapidly toward where the sun rises, but 
still we were afraid the people would chase us. 

" Two days passed away, and no land came in sight. 



HOW FRIGHTENED THEY WERE ! 243 

Fear began to seize us, and we were sorry we had ran 
away. Four days more passed away, and still no land ; 
we thought we should never see it again. Happily we 
had plenty of food, but the water began to get scarce. 
The fifth night a tornado blew and threatened to swamp 
us, but we collected a little water after the wind went 
down. The tornado was followed by a dead calm. 

" While we were in all this trouble we spied a sail, and 
at first we thought it was in pursuit of us, which put us 
in great terror. "Was it a St. Thomas vessel ? If so, it 
would take us back, and our master would be hard upon 
us. But the vessel, after a while, changed its course ; its 
sails grew dimmer and dimmer, and became lost to our 
sight. We continued to sail toward where the sun rises, 
hoping to find the land ; but for a long time no land was 
to be seen, and at last we made up our minds that it was 
all over with us. But at last we saw the land ! It did 
not look like the land of the Oroungous, and we were 
afraid, as we knew not where we were. But we had no 
food, no water, and we had to land or choose to die in 
our canoe." 

We were much affected by the man's pathetic story, 
and told our new friends that they were free forever, as 
on this island there were no slaves. Here they would 
meet with some who, like themselves, had fled from 
where they came, though many more had perished in 
their attempt, while others have landed on the main land, 
and then were re-enslaved by the natives. We told them 
to go to sleep without fear. The next day they went to 
the old governor, who made them welcome to the little 
settlement of Freetown. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

DEPARTURE FROM FERNANDO PO. THE GULL. HER CREW. 

A TORNADO. STARVATION. — -CAPE ST. JOHN. CORISCO. 

GOOD-BY. 

After a short visit to Fernando Po, I thought of going 
southward toward the equator to meet the Roland, but 
there was no vessel going there. Nothing was left for 
me to do but to buy a large boat, a kind of fishing-smack, 
which the governor of the island wished to sell. This 
boat was about ten tons burden. My great objection to 
it was that it had no deck ; but, as there was no choice, I 
had to take it. 

After buying the boat, the next thing was to get a 
crew. I went to friend Fasiko, and asked him to engage 
me a crew of four men, and sail down the coast with me. 
I immediately gave the name of Gull to our craft. 
The next morning Fasiko came with four strong, strap- 
ping fellows, all runaway slaves from the island of St. 
Thomas. They had before gone as sailors on board of 
vessels whose crews had been disabled by sickness. They 
said they were thoroughly good seamen — could splice a 
rope, go up the mast, knew how to cast an anchor, and 
steer a ship. They had kept their Portuguese names — 
Pedro, Antonio, Francisco, and Joannes. I named Fasiko 
captain, Pedro mate, Antonio and Joannes sailors, and 
Francisco cook, steward, and sailor into the bargain, if it 
became necessary. The boat was to be theirs when I 



OUTFIT OF THE GULL. 247 

had done with it, and they would return to Fernando Po 
in it. I engaged them at the rate of ten dollars a month, 
with the promise of extra pay if they worked well. Dis- 
cipline must be observed, and the night watches must be 
strictly kept. 

I was afraid that the sailing qualities of the Gull were 
not very good, for her bow was not sharp, and she was 
too broad and too short. The first thing to be done was 
to put her in thorough trim for her voyage, and get pro- 
visions on board. So I bought from the natives sweet 
potatoes, yams, and a dozen fowls. I tried to get some 
sea-bread, but none could be obtained ; but the good gov- 
ernor promised me some loaves of bread. I bought a 
brass kettle, an iron pot, some butter, two big pieces of 
salt pork, and two pieces of salt beef for my men, and a 
dozen boxes of sardines for myself. We also put on 
board a large quantity of fire-wood. Then I managed to 
get an old cask, which I sawed in two, and filled one half 
with sand. This one was to be our kitchen, and our fire 
was to be lighted on the sand. The other half was to be 
used as a kind of roof to the galley or kitchen, to pro- 
tect the fire from the heavy rain and from the wind. 
This fire was to be kept up all through the voyage. My 
men being great smokers, I bought a good quantity of 
tobacco for them. I bought thick sailors' flannel shirts 
for each man. For myself, I had a thick water-proof 
cloak and several blankets. The uncomfortable point 
about the Gull was that there was no special place to 
sleep in. 

As it would not have done to sail unarmed, I bought 
five trade-guns for my men, and, with my own, we had 
a formidable armament. I got papers from the govern- 



248 MY APING I KINOD OM. 

or for fear of being taken for a slave-dealer trading be- 
tween the Coast and the island of St. Thomas, 

Every thing being ready, we sailed. The morning was 
hot and sultry, and the very light breeze coming from 
the mountains of Fernando Po was hardly strong enough 
to move the boat. We sailed slowly past the island. The 
land-breeze gradually died away, and then the heat be- 
came intense. We had no awning, and I had not even 
an umbrella. There was, in fact, nothing to shelter me 
from the powerful rays of the sun, which seemed to pour 
down upon us with greater force than usual. When the 
land-breeze died away there was no sea-breeze coming to 
our help, and there we lay, a few miles from shore and 
from our point of departure, drifting slowly seaward. 
I had not bargained for this. The day passed away, and 
the sun began to sink beneath the horizon. Darkness 
followed, and with it came a certain relief from the ter- 
rible heat. During the day I kept three wet pocket- 
handkerchiefs in my hat to prevent me from being sun- 
struck. 

Then came the rub. We must see what could be done 
to fix a place for sleeping. All that the sailors could do 
was to sleep on the bottom of the boat the best way they 
could. As for myself, I would sleep on the seat near 
the rudder. Before going to sleep I arranged for two 
watches. Fasiko, Pedro, and Antonio were to be in one ; 
Francisco and Joannes were to belong, with myself, to 
the other. Happily, my Portuguese friends had learned 
English at Fernando Po, and could understand my direc- 
tions pretty well. I said to them, " Boys, we are going 
to be good friends, but remember that there must be no 
sleeping when people keep watch, and" (pointing to a 



STRICT KEEPING OF WATCHES. 249 

stick) " look out for the one who goes to sleep ! for you 
know, boys, that this is the season of tornadoes, and that 
they sweep with terrible force across the sea, and should 
we be caught sleeping by the wind we should all be lost. 
I won't sleep when my turn for the watch comes," I add- 
ed, in a laughing tone. " You may use the stick also on 
me if you catch me sleeping." Each watch was to last 
four hours — from eight to twelve P.M., from twelve to 
four, and from four to eight o'clock A.M. During the 
day, those who felt like sleeping could do so. Those 
whose watch lasted from eight P.M. to midnight were to 
sleep from six o'clock to eight. 

During the whole of the night there was not a breath 
of wind. The sky was clear, and the stars shone beauti- 
fully. Toward four o'clock in the morning a light land- 
breeze began to be felt, and we commenced to make 
headway. The first twenty-four hours we had made 
very little progress from our starting-point, but I had 
great hopes that we should fare better the second day. 
But the second day was not a bit more favorable than 
the first, for we had neither land nor sea breeze. The 
way to navigate on this part of the coast is to take ad- 
vantage in the morning of the land-breeze, and tack sea- 
ward, and in the afternoon, with the sea-breeze, to change 
the tack and make for the shore. The land-breeze would 
take us away from the coast almost in a straight line, 
while with the sea-tack we would approach the coast in 
a southeast direction ; but thus far we had had a good 
deal more land than sea breeze, and were not successful 
in approaching the island. The farther we were from 
land the stronger became the current, which seemed to 
run somewhat from the southeast. 

L2 



250 MY AP1NQI KINOD OM. 

We were getting in a bad way. Four days had elapsed 
since we sailed from Fernando Po, and we were still in 
sight of the island, though far from it. It is true, I had 
ten days' provisions on board ; but, if things went at this 
rate, we ran the risk of being twenty days on our voy- 
age. I began to feel really anxious, though I did not 
want to show my feelings to the crew. I was thinking 
seriously of shortening our food allowance. Happily, we 
had two casks of water on board, and had plenty of it 
yet. The days were so hot that I did not know really 
what to do with myself, and I suffered very much from 
the glare of the sun. Toward nine o'clock on the even- 
ing of the fourth day out, the sky toward the land be- 
came dark and threatening, and it looked very much as 
if a storm was coming. After a while lurid flashes of 
lightning were seen. The distant mutterings of thunder 
could be heard, and these were getting nearer and near- 
er. I kept a sharp lookout on the horizon, and made 
every thing ready, so that the sails might be hauled down 
at the first glimpse of a' tornado. 

At length the thunder began to peal with tremendous 
force, and the rain to pour down in torrents. The 
claps of thunder were terrific. The storm lasted about 
four hours, and after it came a dead calm. Of course 
we were drenched to the very bone. The only thing to 
be done was to leave our clothes to dry upon us. The 
next morning, the fifth day after our departure, the sun, 
as usual, rose brightly, but there was hardly a breath of 
wind. As the storm had come directly from the land, 
it had blown us away from the coast, and, looking in the 
direction of the land, I saw that the bold outlines of the 
Peak of Fernando were lost to our sight. 



WE DESPAIR OF REACHING LAND. 251 

The situation would certainly become critical if it 
lasted much longer. There we were, out of sight of 
land, with no breeze, and seemingly in one of those long 
spells of calm, when there was nothing to counteract the 
force of the strong contrary currents. 

" Boys," I said to my crew, " we have plenty of pro- 
visions yet ; but, as you see, we have been unfortunate 
with the breeze. Suppose we do not eat so much now 
as we did before, so that for sure we may not get out of 
food." " We will do j ust as you say," they replied, cheer- 
fully ; " we will only eat half of what we ought till we 
see a fair prospect of reaching the land." " That is 
right, boys," said I. So we began our short allowance 
of food from that day. 

Quite a change in the weather soon took place, but, I 
am sorry to say, not for the better. Night after night 
the storm would burst upon us with terrible thunder, 
lightning, and rain. In one respect, however, these 
storms were of benefit to us, as they enabled us to col- 
lect water in our sails, and to fill our casks. The days 
were still intensely hot. 

I took advantage of every little breeze we had, but the 
current was so tremendous that the Gull seemed to lose 
all the benefit of the wind. I was steering southeast, 
that is, making for the Coast ; and now fourteen days 
had passed away, and there was no land in sight, though 
the last two days we had had a steady, good breeze. 

It occurred to me at length that the compass by which 
I steered might be out of order, though I did not see how 
this could be, as there was no iron round it, my guns be- 
ing all forward. The following day, when the sun rose, 
I took bearings with the compass, and, making due al- 



252 MY APINGI KINQD OM. 

lowance for the deviation according to the longitude, 1 
saw that the instrument was correct. Either the strong 
currents had put us out of the way, or some of the sailors 
must have steered badly. So I steered the Gull directly 
for the land. I was getting weak, as for the last ten 
days we had eaten very little food, just enough to keep 
us from starvation. I did not like the looks of an enor- 
mous shark that had been following us for three days. 
At night I could see its wake by the phosphorescent light 
it left behind it as it swam. He would come and al- 
most touch the rudder. I shuddered at the thought of 
falling into the water, or of being upset by a tornado. 

We all gradually became very weak. Were we to die 
of hunger at sea % It looked very much as if we were, 
as there was no more food left on board; happily we 
still had water to sustain us. 

Seventeen days had passed since we left Fernando Po. 
That night the sky was clear, and the stars shone beau- 
tifully. The men were lying at the bottom of the boat, 
prostrated by heat and want of food. I was steering, for 
I did not dare to give the care of the rudder to any one. 
I wanted to make sure that the Gull was going right ac- 
cording to the compass. I had no strength left, as for 
two days I had taken no food except four little sardines, 
and my weak arm had all it could do to guide our boat. 
The wind was fair, and I was making right in the direc- 
tion of the land. Shall we see it or not ? As I looked 
toward the stars, I raised a silent prayer to God. The 
moon rose, and by its dim light I looked with sorrow on 
the care-worn, emaciated faces of my five faithful men, 
who had not even uttered a word of grumbling since we 
left. The night passed away, and the next morning, j ust 



WE SEE THE LAND. 253 

as the sun was rising, I happened to look eastward. 
What do I see ? " Land ! land ! boys," I shouted ; " there 
is the land ; look at it !" They all sprang to their feet 
to gaze at the blessed sight. It was Cape St. John. Joy 
succeeded sorrow. God had been with us, and had looked 
down upon the little Gull and its crew. 

Toward noon we landed, so weakened by exposure and 
want of food that we could hardly walk. I tottered like 
a drunken man, I was so weak. The natives knew me, 
for, if you. remember, we had been before at Cape St. 
John. The king of the village welcomed me and my 
men in a very friendly manner. Food was given us, and 
some chickens were presented to me by the kind Afri- 
can women. I forbade the men to eat much for a while, 
and that afternoon we had chicken broth. In the even- 
ing, also, we ate very little, for, if we had eaten hearti- 
ly, no doubt it would have done us harm if it had not 
killed us. 

That night I rested badly, for I was sore all over. The 
reaction had taken place, and all my strength seemed to 
have gone away with my anxiety. The next morning 
I was sick with fever, while a violent headache made 
me suffer terribly. The second day I felt better, and 
three days after my arrival at Cape St. John I sailed for 
the island of Corisco, thence down the Coast to meet the 
Roland. 

This voyage from Fernando to Corisco had been fear- 
ful, and it required a long time for me to get over it. 

In my preceding volumes you have been made ac- 
quainted with Corisco "the beautiful," and the countries 
of the main land ; so I will leave you here, and promise 
to take you with me in my next volume into the country 



254 



MY APING I KINO BOM. 



of the Dwarfs, which is situated far away in the interior 
mountains of Africa. These singular people are, no 
doubt, descendants of the same race described by the 
great historian Herodotus. They inhabit a country where, 
perhaps, some day, my dear Young Folks, one or two of 
you may follow me, and bring home news of what you 
have seen that will make the ears of your auditors tingle 
with wonder. 




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ROUND THE WORLD ; Including a Residence in Victoria, and 
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